


The Sky Rains Red

by phantisma



Series: Vamp!Nate [3]
Category: Leverage (Vamp!Nate verse)
Genre: Blood Drinking, M/M, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-12
Updated: 2010-08-25
Packaged: 2017-12-04 01:05:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 32,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/704697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantisma/pseuds/phantisma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Followa <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/691840">Close the Door, Pull the Shades</a> and <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/693069">I'll Find A Way</a>.  Something is very wrong with Nate, and he doesn't know what it is, he only knows that if he doesn't run, he'll kill everyone he holds dear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

He isn't sure at first...something is just different, off. Eliot sleeps soundly, stretched out on the bed, his bare back a tempting sight as Nate turns from the window, listening for some sound to give away whatever has him tense and on edge.

There's nothing to give away an intruder, no sense that this is external to him, to something in his body that just isn't right. He tries to crawl in beside Eliot, to rest because they have a big day in the morning, taking Ryna to her first day in her new school and a meeting with a client, but he's restless and can't sleep.

It's more than that. More than being restless because sleep and night time don't go together in his world. He can usually relax enough to rest.

He can lay there in bed, but he knows he'll eventually wake Eliot, so he gets up and pads out of the room, his bare feet making nearly no sound on the hardwood floors. He pauses for his bathrobe, pulling it on over his pajama bottoms and bare chest, easing down the hall to check on Ryna.

She's asleep in the middle of her bed, the new kitten curled up beside her. He raises his head, sniffing the air, then standing, his hackles raising. "Good kitty." Nate murmurs, approving of the protective streak in the scruffy little cat.

He can hear her heartbeat, can almost taste the heat of her blood. He blinks and realizes he is in her room, standing at the end of her bed, his face fully changed.

He forces himself back a step, then two. Into the hallway. He forces himself to close the door and move away. Each step takes conscious thought, takes an act of will to keep him from going back.

He can still smell her. She wouldn't taste exactly like Eliot...she is younger, the blood sweeter...less of it. She would never even feel him, wouldn't fight.

He shakes his head and pushes himself into the kitchen, draining the last of the blood in the fridge cold. It doesn't help. He can still hear her heartbeat. If he closes his eyes he can feel her tiny body in his arms, smell her hair, taste her--

"Hey." Eliot is behind him, sleep warm and lazy. He wouldn't fight, wouldn't think to try until it was too late. The _need_ inside him is growing. Nate grips the counter, head bowed. Something is very wrong with him and he isn't sure he won't hurt the people he cares about.

"Eliot. Go be with Ryna." His voice sounds dark, echoing in the giant gourmet kitchen.

Eliot's hand is on his back, the heat of it seeping into Nate. "What's wrong?"

Nate turns and Eliot steps back when he gets a look at Nate's face. "Nate?"

Nate can't look at him. If he does, Eliot will die. He can feel his control slipping. He pulls the biggest knife in the set off the block and holds his hand out with the handle to Eliot. "Go protect your goddamn daughter."

Eliot snatches the knife and backs away. Nate follows to the door of the kitchen, holding the frame as Eliot keeps moving. "What's wrong?" Eliot asks again, fully awake this time.

"I don't know." Nate replies. "But if you don't move your ass, I'm going to kill you. I don't think I can control it very much longer."

Eliot bacs away until Nate can no longer see him. He doesn't need to see him to know where he is. He can smell him, his blood heated by fear…fear for her, fear for Nate…he's with her now. She's safe.

But no, they aren't safe, not until he is gone. He has to get away while he still has conscious thought.

It feels a little like falling, only inside himself. The burning in his chest might be his lungs, if his lungs actually worked anymore.

He stumbles out of the house, away from the temptation of...people...people that matter...shakes his head as he trips down a hill and squints back at the place he's just been. Names...he knows them...people who would taste so sweet...fire on his tongue...warming his belly.

He wants them, craves them.

He shakes his head and pulls himself away. No. Not them. Can't have them.

The need burns inside him and somehow he remembers drowning. The water covers you, pulls you down and the world goes away and the parts of your body you can't control lose themselves to the burning need...the sensation of peace just before you give in, and he wants that, the peace...the giving in...wants the fire to cool...wants the chaos to calm.

 

 

 

This is his fault. He never should have let Nate convince him they could do this...that they could be a family.

Eliot's hand holds the knife, fingers wrapped around the handle. He stands outside Ryna's door with it, watching.

Something is very wrong and he doesn't know if he can trust Nate. Of all people. The only man he'd trusted in a long time.

But he isn't a man at all. He's a goddamn vampire, and that had been novel, interesting, sexy as all fucking hell...but this is just wrong. And now it isn't even just his life he was gambling with.

Eliot hears the door close, feels the absence of Nate like he does when he leaves after they've been intimate, and he eases a little out of the hall, moving for the nearest phone. "Hardison. Shut up and listen. Do not open your door for Nate. Something's wrong. He's...I don't know but pass on the word."

He would need to go find him, but he isn't leaving Ryna. He paces the hallway. He should never have brought her into this. To damn himself was one thing. This was...

"Eliot?"

He turns, hiding the knife behind his back. "Ryna, honey, it's the middle of the night. Go back to bed."

"I had a scary dream and Merlin wants some milk." She rubs at one eye and holds the kitten with the other.

"Okay, a little milk for both of you, then back to bed."

He pours a half a glass for her and a splash in a saucer for the kitten and breaks out the cookies, giving her two. She smiles around her missing front tooth and Eliot sinks to a seat in the chair beside her. He has damned them both to this, and here he sits having milk and cookies, while Nate...well, he isn't sure exactly what Nate was doing, he only knows that it can't be good.

 

 

He doesn't feel safe, not until daylight comes and even then it isn't exactly safe that he feels. He gulps at his coffee, watching the door, the knife in easy reach. "I feel like a dork." Ryna says, startling him.

Eliot looks up, smiling. "You look great."

The school uniform is maroon and white, the skirt stopping just at her knee, the jacket over the crisp white shirt making her look sophisticated. Her hair is pulled back in one ponytail instead of two, making it seem darker, all the honey blonde highlights tucked in under darker hair.

"I look like dork." Ryna counters, putting her backpack on the table. "Where's Nate? He promised he'd keep an eye on Merlin."

Eliot got up from the table to get her breakfast from the stove where he'd been keeping it warm. "Nate had…something he needed to take care of. Kind of an emergency." Eliot says, hating lying to her, but sure he couldn't tell her the truth.

"Is he going to be back tonight?" Ryna sat at the table as Eliot set her plate of eggs and toast down in front of her and went to the fridge for juice. "I don't know, honey." His eyes fell on the drained blood container. It's empty, but still there, the lid opened, marks from Nate's teeth in the Styrofoam. Eliot grabs the juice and pours a glass for Ryna before pulling the container out and getting a plastic bag to put it in.

Maybe it is nothing, but Eliot doesn't want to take that chance.

He pulled his phone from his pocket as it vibrates. "Hardison. Any word?"

"No sign of our fearless leader, if that's what you mean."

Eliot glances at Ryna and steps into the living room. "I need you to check for reports of dead bodies with a vampire signature. Start here and search out in all directions. I need to find him."

"Are you really saying our boy is off book and killing?"

"I don't know, Hardison. That's what I'm saying. I'll be in as soon as I get Ryna to school."

 

 

 

 

Eliot doesn't want to let himself think about the look in Nate's eyes just before he left, just before Eliot let him leave. There were seconds there Eliot wasn't sure Nate even really knew who he was. It was like he was just gone, and all that was left was the vampire. Uncontrolled.

He shudders and drops into the chair in his office. He needs to stop dragging his heels, needs to get out there and find him, figure out what's wrong with him. He drags a hand over his face and opens the drawer of his desk. He's already got one knife strapped to his leg inside his boot, but when hunting a thing that can kill you before you even know it's there, there's no such thing as overkill, so he attaches another to his belt before standing.

He heads for the door, but gets stopped by Sophie and Parker. "Where are you going?" Sophie asks, hands on her hips.

"To find Nate."

"Alone?" Parker asks, crossing her arms.

"Yes, alone. You two deal with the client, I've got Hardison working on tracking him."

"Hardison says he's lost it, that he's wild. Is that true?"

Eliot tried to reign in his impatience. "Something is wrong. I don't know what it is. That's why I want to go find him."

"And then what?" Sophie asked, stopping him when he would have pushed past her. "What are you planning to do with him?"

"I don't know, okay? He…he needs me to find him, Sophie."

"Your daughter needs you more." Sophie responds. She holds up the bag with the blood container in it. "I know someone who can analyze this, see if there's something in it. Let me do that before you go throwing yourself in harms way."

"You do that, I'll track where he's gone." Eliot pushes her aside and stalks toward the door, slamming it shut behind him, because she's right, he knows she's right…but he is too. Nate would do the same for him. Has done the same for him.

Hardison had given him a place to start, a murder. The body was drained of blood, left on his front porch a few blocks from their new home. Then another in an alley behind a bar a mile or so away. At least it was a start.

 

 

 

Eliot drags himself away from the search in time to go pick up Ryna, fuming and barely containing the fury at his failure. Nate was clearly hurting, not himself. All Eliot can do is leave off the hunt and protect his daughter. It would be dark before too long, and with the dark, the vampire would once again have the upper hand.

Ryna is waiting outside the school when he gets there, a man in a navy blue suit beside her, one hand on her shoulder. Eliot swallows down the anger at the idea of this man touching her at all, and gets out of the car. She's obviously been in a scuffle, her nose a little bloody, her shirt untucked and hair a mess.

"Mr. Spencer, I'm Brody Heller, school principle."

Eliot scowls at him, then reaches for Ryna's hand. "You okay?"

"Kathryn caused a fight, Mr. Spencer. I don't need to tell you that this behavior is unacceptable."

"Ryna, tell me what happened?"

She's pouting, then pulling away from Mr. Heller. "Nothing. The boys were mean."

"Boys?" Eliot looks to Heller. "What happened?"

"From what I could gather, your daughter punched two young men who made fun of the way she talks."

"If she did the hitting, why is it's she's the one with the bloody nose?"

"There was something of a scuffle before our teachers could break it up."

Eliot so did not have the time or the patience for this conversation. "Ryna, get in the car. Mr. Heller, I will explain to her that she can't hit people. Anything else?"

"See that you do, Mr. Spencer. The next time I will have to suspend her."

Eliot slides into the driver's seat as Ryna is buckling up. "Want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Fine." He gets them home with little more said, slamming into the house.

"Are you mad?" Ryna asks as they get inside.

"What?" Eliot turns to look at her. "You know you can't just go around hitting people."

"I know. They just made me so angry." She tosses her backpack on the floor and crosses her arms. "Stupid, couldn't even do it right."

"Do what right?"

"They teased me 'cause of my voice, the way I say stuff…but they kept doing it wrong." She pouts at him, and gives up when she realizes it isn't working. "I didn't hit them until they pulled on my ponytail."

Eliot sighs and sits her on the couch. "Ryna, I know how hard it is sometimes not to just smash someone's face in. Believe me I know. But, you need to learn that hitting doesn't always solve everything. Sometimes all it does is make things worse."

"Mr. Heller made me apologize to them."

"Good. Now, why don't you go wash your face and change your clothes? I'll see about dinner."

"Is Nate back?" Ryna asked as she got to her feet. "Is Merlin okay?"

"I'm sure Merlin is fine." Eliot avoids the question about Nate as she goes running for her room, hoping the kitten was enough to distract her. He isn't ready to tell her that Nate may not be coming back.

 

 

 

It burns through him, the need for blood. His face is sticky, his skin cold. The dark is nowhere near dark enough to hide him, to hold him safe. He stumbles bare foot and bare chested and blood-brained through streets puddled with the rains that have washed the blood from everything but his face.

She's dead.

He stops in the middle of the alley, squinting up at the bright orb of the moon above him and remembers the way she screamed, the way her tiny legs kicked and her heart pounded faster and faster until it couldn't keep up anymore and the blood stopped.

She lay so small and unmoving on the dark ground, her hair spread out around her, the smell of her rising up to his nose and making him want more. It wasn't enough.

There's a part of him that doesn't understand, that wants to cover her, save her, hide her. There is shame, but it flushes away under the rush of heat, blood moving inside him, calling out for more...more...But she is dead, and she has no more to give.

A scent comes to him on the wind. Spicy, old. A smile spreads over his face, blood slicked fangs pressed against his lips. The old man has what he needs, the girl lies forgotten and Nate cuts through the night for his next taste of blood.

 

 

"This is bad." Parker says softly beside Eliot.

"You don't have to tell me that." Eliot growls. He squats beside the third body they had found as they try, and mostly fail, to find Nate.

"No, Eliot." She tugs on his shirt sleeve and he looks up.

"Shit." The sun is going down. Obviously they'd lost track of time as they wound through the dark alleyways and dirty warehouses. "We need to move."

Without the sun to hamper him, Nate is faster than Eliot, stronger than Eliot and driven by a bloodlust they haven't quite figured out yet.

He feels him before he realizes it is Nate. "Parker, freeze." They both stop dead as Nate's face moves through the shadows nearest Parker. "Just don't move. Hold your breath and wait. Given the choice, he'll come for me."

"That's your plan?" Parker asks, wide eyes staring at him. "Stupid plan."

"When he comes for me, you run."

"What about you?"

"I can handle myself." Nate shifts through the shadows, moving closer, sniffing the air. Parker stiffens when she feels him, his face close, nose in her hair. "Hey, Nate...we just want you to come home." Eliot says, drawing his attention. His hand circles the knife in his belt. The last thing he wants to do was hurt him, but he will if he has to.

Nate turns to him, something like vague recognition in his eyes. "Ellll..." He shuffles toward Eliot, sniffing the air as he gets closer. The recognition fades after a moment and his face fills with hunger, need.

"Now Parker, run!"

Eliot steps back and Nate follows, hands already reaching for Eliot. He doesn't get to see if Parker listens, if she actually runs, because suddenly, his foot hits something and he's falling, Nate falling with him, teeth bared.

 

 

There's an odd sweet smell to the air as Eliot comes awake, like cinnamon rolls or donuts maybe. His head hurts and there's blood on his shirt.

"Fuck." He's not sure why he isn't dead. He had led Nate away from Parker, had tripped over a something, and he had expected to die when Nate caught him, when Nate bit him.

His hand goes to the wound, not Nate's normal clean bite, but a gouge of flesh torn, blood still oozing from it. Not the most efficient way to drain a human body of blood.

He sits up slowly, looking around him. The place is dark, the shadows darker still and Eliot is sitting in a pile of dirty, moldy clothes or blankets or something. Slowly he becomes aware that he's being watched.

Nate is there, waiting, watching him...looking kind of like a tiger ready to pounce. "Hey..." He moves slowly, getting his feet under him to stand, despite how woozy he feels. Nate springs to life, shoving Eliot back down, cocking his head and shoving a cinnamon roll at him.

"Eat, El."

"Easy, Nate." Eliot says, keeping his voice low, steady. He takes the food, biting into it when Nate didn't move, watching his mouth. After Eliot takes a second bite, Nate moves back and Eliot breathes a little easier.

He gets the sense that they're in a basement, no windows he can see. He shifts again, moving his feet. He needs to be able to move.

Nate clearly fed on him, but didn't kill him, and Eliot isn't clear on why that is. He needs to figure it out fast though, before Nate changes his mind.

Nate shuffles around in the shadows, then suddenly comes back, pushing Eliot's head aside and licking at the wound. His hands are rough, his eyes wild. The taste seems to agitate him. Nate's hands push on him, then one fists in Eliot's hair, dragging him from the makeshift bed and throwing him into a corner. "Mine."

"Yeah, Nate. Yeah. We been through this." Eliot mutters, climbing to his feet even though his head is ringing from hitting the wall. "Yours. All yours. Just let me help you."

Nate's head tilts, as if he is trying to understand him. Eliot watches his eyes darken, watching the little bit of recognition in his expression fade, rage flooding in behind his eyes.

He braces himself for the fight, but the blood loss is affecting him and Nate always was faster, and before he can do much more than get a hand on Nate's shoulder, his teeth were sinking in and the darkness fell even faster than before.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eliot escapes, but not without some injury, and sets right back out to find Nate and whatever has made him change.

Eliot groans as he pulls himself into consciousness. Everything hurts and for a long moment he can't place the where or how of why. He rolls onto his back and opens his eyes and it all comes into sharp focus.

He is still in the dirty warehouse basement, in the dark. The smells of cinnamon and moldy fabric surround him. His head is pounding and his limbs are heavy, but he is alone. He swallows and lifts his head, his eyes combing the shadows to confirm that. "Nate?" He presses his elbows into the dirty pile of clothes and blankets under him, tensing, half expecting the vampire to pounce out of the dark.

It hurts to move, but if he keeps laying there he'll be dead before long. One of these times Nate won't stop. He's got to find his way out, figure out what's gone wrong and how to fix it.

Nate had taken his boots, leaving him in stocking feet and a blood crusted shirt. His left shoulder is dislocated and he cradles the arm close to his body as he climbs to his feet. He can't understand why Nate would leave him alive, unguarded, unrestrained.

He stumbles toward what he thinks is a door. Not that Nate is in his right mind, that much is very clear. There were moments he seemed to know Eliot, but they passed fast and then Nate was…feral is the only word that comes to mind.

His eyes are the dark, inky black they become when he's in need of feeding, or when he lets the vampire take over. His skin is pale, more so than normal, pasty and sweaty, like a junkie in need of a fix, or so far gone on one he can't see reality.

Eliot finds a flight of stairs and pulls himself up them, sliding against the railing. He's panting with the effort by the time he gets to the top, but slowly realizes the railing was pressing against something in his pocket. His right hand fumbles at his pocket, eventually pulling out his phone. 

He stares at it for a minute, then opens it. He has to turn it on, and the battery is low. It's just after midnight. He's been gone almost forty eight hours. Shit. He swallows and thumbs a number, lifting the phone to his ear as he stumbles through equipment that might have been part of a textile mill at some point. 

"Eliot? Where the fuck you been?"

"Don't know." Eliot can't muster the energy to bicker with Hardison. "Just…Ryna?"

"Sophie has her. Where are you?"

Eliot shakes his head as he fights his way through a boarded up doorway, hissing as he cuts his foot on something as he does. "Some old warehouse. Trying to get outside."

"I'm getting your GPS from your phone. I'll come pick you up." 

Eliot leans against the building. "Hurry, I don't know how long I've got before he comes back."

"Just hold on, I'm on my way."

Eliot closed his hand over his phone, holding it tight as he looked around him, trying to figure out which of the three alleys he could see would take him out to a road to make it easier for Hardison to find him.

 

"You belong in a hospital." Sophie says as Eliot stands shirtless in the bathroom, working on bandaging the mess Nate made of his neck.

Eliot looks at her reflection, his face hard. "I need to find Nate."

"Right, because finding him isn't exactly what has you in this shape already."

She has a point, but Eliot isn't about to tell her that. His chest and back are mottled black and blue from the impact with the wall and his neck is ripped up and probably needs stitches, but he doesn't have time for that. His foot is cut up, but he's got that bandaged and held in a boot that will keep it from swelling up. 

"Eliot!" He turns and steps out of the bathroom as Ryna comes flying in from the front door, stopping short of throwing herself at him when she sees him. 

"I'm okay." Eliot sooths, going to one knee and reaching out to hug her. Instead of letting him, she hits him, smacking his shoulder hard. "Ow, what was that for?"

"You scared me." She pouted, her eyes dragging over the blood and bruises. "You don't look okay."

"I'm fine. Just a little bruised."

"Where's Nate?"

Eliot exhaled and stood. "I haven't found him yet." Which wasn't completely true. "You have homework?" She nodded, clutching her book bag to her. "Go on into the dining room and I'll fix you a snack while you work on it."

He ducked back into the bathroom to finish taping down the bandage and grab the clean shirt he'd brought in. Sophie followed after him, but thankfully kept her mouth shut until they were in the kitchen. He pulled out some cheese and an apple and took them to the cutting board. "So, what did you find?"

She sighed and leaned on the counter. "We aren't completely sure. The blood Nate got from the blood bank was filled with a new street drug."

"Some junkie dosed up, then gave blood to make more money for more dope?" Eliot kept his eyes on his fingers, kept his emotion tightly locked down.

"Perhaps. It's part hallucinogenic, part stimulant."

"Great." Eliot transferred the cut cheese and fruit to a plate and poured a glass of milk to take out to Ryna. "So, what do we do?" He asked Sophie as he came back into the kitchen. "How do we make him better?"

"Well, it looks like it should work itself out of his system. It seems that the drug is known to affect different people for longer periods of time. The faster their metabolism, the quicker the drug is in of their system, the faster it flushes, presumably."

Eliot froze, feeling the blood drain from his face. "What? I thought that should be good news?"

"Nate's a vampire, Sophie." Eliot says softly.

For the longest time she just stares at him. "He has no metabolism, he has no heart…" Eliot swallows past the lump of fear in his throat. "And he isn't getting better." He remembers the look in Nate's eye, the animal way his eyes looked at him. "He's getting worse."

He paces the kitchen, pulling a hand through his hair. "It's just pooling inside him, we need to find him."

"Parker's tracking the trail of bodies."

Eliot nods and exhales slowly. "Okay. I'm going to secure a place to keep him. Keep an eye on Ryna."

"Eliot—"

"Don't Sophie." He doesn't look at her as he pushes his way out of the kitchen. He doesn't want to hear how he should rest, how he needs to heal. He knows…but right at that moment, Nate was more important.

 

The news tells stories of a serial killer haunting the streets, killing two and three people each night, no pattern, no logic to the places or the choice of victims, but Eliot knows that isn't completely true.

He sees the pattern, notices how the first of the night is always the easiest, like Nate still has some control of the beast inside him then. By the last one, he's vicious, mindless. He sticks mostly to the dark alleys and abandoned warehouses where drug addicts and runaways squat, circles the same neighborhood where Eliot found himself after Nate left him alone. He's moved his nesting place though, and Eliot hunts the daylight hours for him without a lot of success.

"We need to lure him out in the open." Eliot says, pacing around the office. He glances through the window to the lobby where Ryna is playing with some toys, entertaining herself while they strategize. 

"And then what?" Sophie asks. "He took you down pretty easily the last time."

"We could tranquilize him." Parker offers, sliding into a chair near the door. "One of us could set up in a window or on a roof, Eliot draws him out, we tag him and secure him when he goes down."

"If he goes down." Hardison interjects, taping at his keyboard. "I been looking into this drug. It's worse than PCP for the rush of adrenaline. A kid was hyped up on this stuff when he robbed a liquor store a month ago, took five bullets in the chest and kept coming. It took one in his head to put him down."

"And there's a possibility, if he's feeding on junkies, that he's gotten more into his system." Sophie adds.

"Anyone got any better ideas?" Eliot asks, his frustration and worry leaking out.

"I'll get something for large game." Parker says, her eyes showing her own worry as she looks up at Eliot. "Give me a few hours."

Eliot nods. "Hardison and I will pick a spot and set up cameras. We're going to need warning. He's fast."

 

It goes against everything he knows, he can feel the way he's being hunted, the hair standing up on the back of his neck. His heart is hammering, and he knows it's like a beacon, calling Nate to the exposed and vulnerable position where he's standing. 

Just fucking standing.

"Where the hell is he?" Eliot whispers into the comm.

"I got nothing." Hardison said.

"I can feel him. He's here." Eliot turned, feeling like he should be able to pick Nate out of the shadows, like he should be able to find him, even if he didn't want to be found.

"He's not on any of the cameras." Hardison said. "Maybe he knows."

"The only thing he knows is blood." They had spotted him earlier in the night, hunting, his face devoid of anything but naked need. He had smelled Eliot and left of the prey he'd been stalking, and Eliot had really needed to scramble to stay ahead of him and draw him here.

"E-E-Elll-iott."

He whirls before the word has stopped drawing out of a mouth that hasn't spoken words in days, and Nate is there, one step behind him, reaching for him, eyes dark and vacant, blood covering his face and clothes, fangs biting into his lips.

Eliot steps back despite the fight response thrumming through his veins. "Come and get me, Nate. You know you want me."

Nate shuffles forward as if uncertain, but Eliot knows he can pounce, can move faster than Eliot dreams. He only has to get him clear, get him out in the open where Parker can take the shot. He resists the urge to look up at the window where Parker is hiding, because if he takes his eyes off Nate, he's as good as dead.

Another step back, eyes locked on Nate's face.

The vampire lunges, teeth latching on to Eliot, blood spilling between them. Eliot staggers back, just trying to stay conscious long enough. "NOW!"

He hears the sound of the gun, distant, even as he falls to the ground, taking Nate with him. He fights the dark, pushes against Nate until he feels the lips on his skin go slack and Nate falls against him, dead weight.

It seems like forever, the cold concrete pressed into his back, Nate's cold body pressed into his chest, before they come for them, iron shackles in their hands. Eliot clings to consciousness as they roll Nate off him, locking the shackles onto his wrists and ankles and getting him up into the van. Parker comes back to help Eliot up and into the van with Nate, Eliot's hand falling on his shoulder. He settles his head back against the wall of the van and lets his eyes close. Now all they had to do was figure out how to help him.

 

He hates this, hates seeing Nate strung up this way, but it's the only way to keep them all safe. Hates the way the others watch him, like they pity him, like they think he's lost his mind, like Nate's expendable in all this, like he's gone too far to ever come back to them the way he was.

Most of all he hates the way he thinks they may be right. 

Eliot watches from the shadows of the room, looking for signs that Nate's awake, that he's aware. His arms are still in the iron shackles, pulled up over his head. The chain is tight, keeps him upright, his chin dropped forward on his chest. His feet drag the floor. The leather in his mouth is pulled tight, making it impossible for him to bite and even like this, unconscious, his fangs are extended, his brow raised.

His body twitches, a low growl rumbling through him. He'll have a pounding headache from the drugs, and he hasn't fed now in nearly twenty four hours, so he's probably hungry. 

Eliot watches his eyes open and scan the room, stopping on the dark corner where Eliot is standing. The growl changes tone a little and Eliot moves from the shadows. "It's okay, Nate. We're going to help you."

Nate thrashes in the restraints, his eyes wild, his feet kicking out toward Eliot. "Just calm down. No one's going to hurt you." Eliot skirts just out of his reach, heading for the door. "I'm going to get you something, okay?" Nate only thrashes more in response as Eliot slips out of the room.

Parker meets him in the hallway outside the vault, a syringe in hand. "You okay?"

Eliot doesn't really answer, just takes the needle. "Any word from Hardison?"

She shakes her head. "Not yet. It would help if we could tell the lab rat what he's looking at."

"He wouldn't believe us if we told him. We just need him to tell us how the blood we took from Nate is different from the average junkie on this crap…so we can figure out how to treat him."

"You sure about keeping him out of it?" Parker nods at the syringe.

"Better than letting himself tear himself apart trying to escape." He sighs and puts his hand back on the door. The old building had proven perfect for their needs, the vault sound proof and nothing short of a dynamite blast was getting it open if they locked it. "Let me know when you hear something."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eliot may have found a way to save Nate, but the cure itself might still kill the vampire. Hardison and Sophie discover that getting Nate through this may not be the only challenge they have to face.

Eliot is there. Nate can feel him, smell him. He's aware enough to recognize the scent, but that's about the end of his conscious thought.

He wants to feed, needs it. His stomach roils with the need, his body thrashes with the animal desire, wild, shaking, craving.

Eliot shifts in the shadows, circling just out of reach. Nate can hear himself growling...low, in the back of his throat, can taste the leather that keeps him from even biting his own lips for some taste of what he needs.

He's starving. Eliot is killing him. Starving him slow. 

Hunger burns inside him and the only thing keeping him from tearing Eliot into bloody ribbons he can lick clean is the way his arms are bound, the way he's held off the floor.

Eliot is there. Nate can feel him, smell him. And then, Eliot is gone.

 

"I'm not arguing with you." Sophie says without preamble, handing him a thermos. She pulls the vault door shut and locks it, locking Nate inside. "It's tea not coffee, just to warm you up. Hardison is out front. He's taking you home where there is a meal waiting for you and you will eat it. You will sleep for more than four hours and you will spend some time with your daughter. You're not coming back here until you've done all of those things."

There's some small part of him that wants to argue, but he's too tired, too wrung out. "Don't go in." His voice cracks, his throat dry and he has to wonder how long it's been since he's spoken in more than a broken whisper in Nate's ear after he's gotten more of the drugs and is calm for a while.

It's the only time Eliot can see _Nate_ inside the monster he's become.

Her hand catches him, pulls his hair aside so she can see the bruising on his face. "He do that?"

Eliot nods, turning his head to crack his neck. "Last time I sedated him, he got a foot up before I got clear." He hugs the thermos to him, the warmth comforting somehow. 

"Go on. I'll be here."

He leaves her there, leaves Nate there, lost inside himself, inside the drug induced madness that they may never get him back from. Hardison raises a hand in greeting, but knows better than to say anything. Eliot slips into the car beside him, opening the thermos to sip at the tea. The vault was icy cold and the heat just leeched out of him whenever he saw Nate anyway.

Ryna is waiting for him when he walks in the door, little fists on her hips, an eyebrow raised as she looks at him, then pointedly at the door to the dining room. He doesn't argue, just shuffles in, suddenly exhausted. Parker is just finishing up putting a plate on the table for him.

"Sit." Ryna says, taking the glass of milk from Parker and putting it by his plate. 

"Yes, ma'am." Eliot says seriously, sliding into the chair. It's simple enough food, a burger and fries, and some fruit. His stomach rumbles as if the sight of food is all he needed to realize he was hungry.

"I got him, Parker, you can go." Ryna says, though her eyes never leave Eliot's face.

"I'll be in the guest room. Call me if he gives you any trouble." Parker's eyes sparkle and Ryna reaches out with her hand, grabbing Eliot's chin and turning his face.

Her eyes narrow. "Oh, he won't give me any trouble. Right?"

Eliot inhales. "You have my word."

Parker nods and leaves the room and Eliot lifts his burger. "Ain't you eatin'?" His southern twang is always worse when he was tired, and good god, but he is.

"Ate before, so I could keep an eye on you." Ryna responds. And she does. She sits and watches him. It makes him twitch a little. 

"Trying to eat, Ryna." Eliot murmurs after a while and she sighs.

"Yeah, weird isn't it? Having someone watch you do stuff?"

He feels her eyes drop and swallows his burger. He decides to change the subject. "So, how are things at school?"

She sits back then, crossing her arms in a huff. "Fine."

"Ryna." He shakes two fries at her before stuffing them in his mouth. "Truth." 

"It sucks. I hate wearing skirts and the boys are stupid and they want me to play some stupid game where you can't touch the ball with your hands."

"Soccer?"

She rolls her eyes and Eliot can't help but chuckle a little. His daughter and team sports were never going to be a smooth, happy fit. "It's stupid. I don't like it."

"Well, just do the best you can and don't hit anyone, it'll be over soon enough, then you'll learn a different sport."

"Hockey?" She perks up, her eyes sparkling. "Can I learn hockey?"

Okay, so maybe team sports would be okay, as long as they were violent enough. "Well, I don't know if the school has hockey, honey, but if that's what you want, I'm sure we could find you something."

"Old Man Caffee's son played hockey. He used to take us to this big rink in the city sometimes and we got to watch."

"Okay, so we'll see about hockey when things quiet down a little, okay?" Eliot lifts his glass and drains about half the milk. "How about the cat? How's he?"

She smiles then. "He's good, getting big already. He likes sleeping in my shoes."

They are quiet as Eliot finishes his food and when he's done, she jumps off the chair to take his hand. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" 

"I'm putting you to bed." She pulls until he's shuffling along behind her, down the hall to her room where her bed is neatly made up with blue sheets and folded down. Merlin's asleep in the middle of the bed, and Ryna move's him, cuddling him to her before she does the thing where she looks at him and then the bed, like he's supposed to know that it's an order. "Come on, you're exhausted and you need to sleep."

"Ryna, I have my own bed." 

She stomps her foot, then seems to get a hold of herself. "I want to keep an eye on you. Please." The last word is just a little plaintive and Eliot gives in, sitting on the bed and letting her pull his boots off. She stumbles back and waves a hand in front of her face. "Seriously? When was the last time you showered?"

Eliot snorts and lets her push him back on the bed. "When you wake up, you're showering and making me breakfast."

"Okay." Now that he's laying down, he can feel the fatigue pulling at him. He yawns into his fist as Ryna pulls the blankets up over him. She kisses his forehead, then crawls up on the bed next to him, laying down with her face just inches from his. He's drifting toward sleep when he hears here clear her throat.

"Eliot?"

He manages to get his eyes open. "What?"

"Is Nate gonna be okay?"

Eliot's eyes are heavy and he blinks, trying to stay awake enough to answer her. "I don't know, Ryna."

"Are you?" 

Eliot tries to reassure her, but four days with next to no sleep was too much, even for him.

 

He wakes before the sun is up, a little disoriented and uncertain of where he is until he realizes that Ryna is curled up in his arms and Merlin is curled up in hers. Eliot takes his time extricating himself, savoring the warm feeling of his daughter's body in his arms.

He can smell himself, days of grime and sweat and worry staining his skin. He stumbles through the dark house to his own bedroom and into the bathroom. The hot water of the shower is maybe the best thing he's felt in days. He stands under the stream until the water has started to run cold, then briskly washes his hair and rinses clean.

Hardison is at the kitchen table with his laptop when Eliot is dressed and ready to make coffee. "Sophie's sleeping, Parker's at the building keeping an eye on our boy. Coffee's hot."

Eliot grunts as he heads for the pot. "How long you been here?"

"Couple hours." His fingers flew on the keyboard and he made a frustrated noise. "Damn."

"What?" Eliot tugs a chair closer with his foot, straddling the chair and cradling his coffee cup.

"I been tracing this drug. It doesn't make sense, the way it's popping up." Hardison sits back and sips off his cup of coffee. "Look." He turns the computer to face Eliot. "The red is confirmed cases, the white suspected."

"Pretty concentrated." Eliot points to one cluster of red. "Where's this?" 

"The neighborhood where you found Nate. This here?" Hardison's finger circles a cluster of mixed red and white. "Is upscale, first sightings of the drug were here. It's pretty expensive to make."

"So, what's it doing in a neighborhood where no one has any money?"

"Good question."

"Better question. How'd it get into the blood Nate got from the blood bank over here?" Eliot points to the area on the map where the blood bank was, miles away from any reported clusters of the drug.

"Answer that, and maybe we figure out who did it."

"So we're thinking someone did this deliberately?" 

Both Hardison and Eliot look up to find Sophie in the doorway, wrapped in a silk robe, her hair askew, her arms wrapped around herself.

"It's starting to look that way." She shuffles in toward the coffee. "You sleep?"

"Yeah, you?" Eliot asks, because she doesn't really look like she has.

"Not really." Her hands hold the mug of coffee close to her face as she moves to the table. "I can't imagine who would do this, or why."

"It has to be someone who knows what Nate is, and where he gets his supply." Hardison says thoughtfully, stroking his chin. 

"But what does anyone gain from turning Nate into…" Eliot gestures lamely. "…what he is?"

"Maybe Nate is nothing more than the weapon." Sophie says, her eyes narrowing.

"What?" Eliot turns to her. 

"Well, you have to admit, he makes a pretty good killing machine. A vampire, hyped up on this drug, no moral compass, hungry…the more he feeds the stronger the drug gets, the hungrier he is." Her voice trails off, her face unreadable.

"Still, what's the point?" Eliot drains his coffee and stands, going back for more. "Why concentrate the drug there? Why dope Nate? It just doesn't make any sense."

"Yet." Hardison counters, pulling his computer back to him. "I got an idea. Give me a few hours."

 

"Okay, so no hitting, kicking or name calling." Eliot says with a smirk as they sit outside the school in his truck. 

Ryna rolls her eyes. "Whatever. You **will** be home for dinner, right?"

Eliot leans in to kiss her cheek. "Promise."

Her hand is on the door for a second before she pulls it back and looks up at him. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Anything."

She nods and doesn't ask right away, looking like she's sorting through information in her head, trying to think of the best way to ask. "Is Nate a vampire?"

Eliot blinks and sits back, staring at her with his mouth slightly open. He'd been prepared for nearly anything, but not that. "I…uh…what?"

Ryna folds her hands in her lap and gives him a patronizing look. "I'm eight, not a moron, Eliot. I have ears, and eyes. I see the blood in the fridge, I see the marks on your neck, I hear you guys talking." 

Of course she's not a moron. Eliot just never expected her to put the pieces together. He wants to tell her no, wants to tell her that vampires aren't real, that she's safe, that everything is going to be fine. But he doesn't want to lie either. Slowly he nods. "Yeah, Ryna. He is."

"Did he kill those people?" 

He can feel her eyes on him as he scrubs a hand over his face. "Yeah, he did. He's sick though, someone put drugs in his food, and it made him forget who he is."

"But he's going to remember, right?"

"I hope so, honey."

"Do you love him?" 

Eliot exhaled loudly. "What? You're going to be late."

Ryna snickered as she opened the door, then leaned across the seat to kiss his cheek. "Nana Miller always said that love could fix anything. That's all. If you love him and he loves you, he'll get better and he'll come home and we can be a family."

Eliot waited until she was inside before he pulled away from the curb. If only it was as easy as she made it sound. Even if they got Nate through this, even if they were doing the right thing and he lived…there was no telling whether or not he'd ever be okay, if he could live with himself, trust himself to be around them again.

And that didn't even begin to touch the real problem. Somewhere out there was someone who knew Nate's secret. Someone who knew how to exploit it for reasons that so far remained a mystery.

 

"Can you hear me?"

Eliot. 

"Nate...I mean..."

Eliot's hand is on his chest. It's the first time anyone has touched him since they caught him. Even when they drug him, it's without touching. His hand is hot and it wakens the hunger.

"We're almost there, Nate...just a little longer, okay?"

Nate knows his fangs are biting into his lip, knows his body is starving for blood...blood that's right there. He only has to take it...but he's weak...so very weak and Eliot...Eliot's scared. He can hear it in his voice.

"Eliot?" His voice sounds broken.

Eliot's hand presses against him, heat. Connection. "Just a little longer, I promise."

His thoughts are sluggish, but he slowly recognizes that they're his thoughts. Eliot. Ryna. The team. There's still hunger. Need. Desire. But the rage is gone, or tucked away. 

Pain registers. His arms and shoulders heavy, pulling. His back sore. The cold seeps into him and Eliot's hand, the heat of his body is too far away. "Eliot. Hurts." 

His eyes open and the room is dark, but Eliot is near, he can feel him.

"I can sedate you." Eliot says softly.

"No." He's been under so long. "Cold." Behind him. Eliot's arms wrap around Nate from behind, pulling their bodies together.

"Better?"

He shivers, but nods. It's better. He can feel Eliot's heart beating. He closes his eyes against the spike of need inside him. "Hungry."

"I know." Eliot's voice whispers over his skin. "Soon, I promise."

His teeth chatter, the hunger inside him cold and insistent. He knows it's been days, longer since he last felt warm blood flow down his throat. He remembers a girl…young, blond hair and blue eyes. He groans and shakes, knocking Eliot away.

"Nate?"

"Ryna?" In his mind, she's dead, broken, bloody, scattered on the ground somewhere.

"She's okay, she's at school."

Eliot's in front of him now, still keeping his hands away from Nate's mouth, but touching him.

"I killed them." He can see them, can feel their blood on his hands, on his face, smeared over his bare chest. "I killed them." He's yanking on his hands, can feel the skin tearing, but he can't stop. Then a sharp prick in his side sends him hurtling into the dark.


	4. Chapter 4

"Nate, can you hear me? Need you to wake up. Need you to feed. Come on."

He hears the words from a distance, like miles of tunnel and he fights consciousness, knowing instinctively that consciousness is going to hurt. Something warm hovers over him, something living. 

There's a low growl echoing around him, coming from him. A splash touches his lips, wet, hot. His tongue moves, his eyes open as the taste explodes and his body roars to life, reaching for the source of the blood.

The bed rattles, shakes with his effort and Eliot pulls away. Eliot. Nate recognizes him, recognizes the taste of him in his mouth, but he's restrained, his arms and feet chained and Eliot holds one hand over his bleeding wrist. 

Nate growls, pulling at the restraints as Eliot approaches again slowly. "Easy. I'm going to feed you, but you gotta relax."

The words filter through the need and hunger and rage that fill his mind and Nate tries, really tries to settle. His fangs are down, his mouth open. Eliot moves closer, holding his arm up over Nate's face. "That's it, easy." 

Eliot moves his thumb off the wound and blood drips into Nate's open mouth, hot, rich. It triggers a slide of memories, his body tightening. The first time Eliot seduced him, the way the heat filled him, burning into him, the craving born in those first moments. Long before Nate is done, Eliot pulls back, his hand once more closing over the wound. 

"More." Nate growls, his head turning to follow Eliot's movements. 

"Not yet. We have to be sure."

Nate thinks he should understand, but can't make sense of it, frowning up at Eliot as the fangs retreat and his brow eases back. "Eliot?" 

He remembers bits and pieces, all strung along periods of black. Eliot's wrapping a bandage around his wrist as he comes to kneel beside the bed. "It's okay Nate. You're going to be fine."

Nate squints at him. "So hungry." It isn't what he means to say, but his impulse control seems to be nearly non-existent.

"I know." Eliot tapes down the bandage, than lifts his hand to rest on Nate's chest. "I know, and if this goes well, I'll feed you everything you need. But we have to make sure first."

"Sure…" There was a drug. Suddenly he remembers Eliot telling him that. In the blood. Something that changed him, made him kill. Nearly made him kill Ryna. Nate swallows, licks at his lips as if he can somehow pull more blood into him that way, as if it's just out of his reach. So fucking hungry. Starving.

The growl is back, almost like he can't control it…or exactly like because it doesn't stop even as he thinks that. He's shaking, trembling. The small bit of blood he's swallowed is nowhere near enough. His body is cold, like he hasn't fed properly in days.

He realizes Eliot is talking to him, but he can't make sense of the words. Rage swells inside him, hunger fueled rage and his screams knock Eliot away, the bed rattling against the floor as he tries to free himself.

"Damn it." Nate's teeth dig into his lips and his fingernails claw at the bed. "Nate, damn it all to fuck." Eliot's got something in his hands as he approaches. "Come on, pull it together."

Eliot is waiting for something, waiting for Nate. 

Nate swallows, closes his eyes. His thoughts are sluggish, but he can push them through the haze of rage. "Eliot." His voice is gruffer than it had been moments before. "Eliot." It helps a little, the knowledge that Eliot is there, that Eliot won't let him die, not if he can help it. Nate nods, licks his lips. "Okay…I'm okay…"

It isn't entirely the truth, but Eliot puts the needle away. "Rest, Nate. I'll be back in a bit."

He feels Eliot's withdrawal like a blanket of snow laid over his grave, keeps his eyes closed and hopes for sleep to pull him under.

 

Eliot slams out of the room, slams into the next room where Hardison is still working feverishly at his computer. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."

Hardison looks up at him. "I take it that didn't go well?"

Eliot fumes and tosses a chair into a wall before inhaling deeply and pushing his hair out of his face. "No, not as well as I want."

Hardison nods, his eyes going a little soft around the edges. "We knew it was going to be tough."

Eliot closes his eyes, but he can still see the way Nate's body went rigid, the way his eyes filled with dark and had he been loose, Eliot is fairly certain he wouldn't be standing here. "He pulled it together though…I think a little longer and maybe we'll try again."

Hardison didn't say what they both were thinking. Much longer and there wasn't going to be a Nate to try to revive. "What about you?"

"Sophie's dropped the package." Hardison's fingers flew on the keys. 

"You think he'll take the bait?"

Hardison looks up at him and shrugs. "It's Sterling. Who knows." He glances at the clock, then up at Eliot. "You better get moving, Ryna's field trip is just about over."

"Right. You call me if anything changes. I'll be back once she's in bed."

Eliot jogs out to the truck, heading for the school. He'd promised he'd be there when they got back because Ryna has been riding him like crazy about the time he spends with her…not that he minds really. He loves the girl like nobody's business, but he needs to take care of Nate too.

And he should be out there with Sophie because Sterling doesn't play nice. He doesn't like the plan, but he's been outvoted and that leaves him going to fetch his daughter and babysitting Nate while Sophie and Parker and Hardison take the risks.

And Sterling isn't even the biggest one. Just the one they can put a name to at the moment. Like Nate, Sterling is being manipulated by bigger players in some scheme that at first glance seems random and disorganized, but when Hardison started peeling back they layers they'd found a complex web of deceit and violence and drugs.

Eliot pulls into the school as the kids are piling off the bus, waits while Ryna gets her things organized and waves at him before the teacher lets the kids go. She runs to the truck all smiles and pulls the door open, climbing inside.

"I take it you had a good day?" Eliot asks as she slides over the seat to kiss his cheek in greeting.

"The best. I got to hit stuff." Eliot chuckles and gets them moving into traffic. "There were these big pillows people jump into, but they wouldn't let us jump, but they let us hit them over and over."

"Meet anyone famous?" Eliot asks, watching her squinting out the window.

"Nah, they all went home. They only invited us cause they were all done and packing up to leave…but we got to see how the cameras work and what the director does and we met this guy who says his job is to stand and hold Johnny Depp's coffee all day…well, except when he's drinking it." She put a hand out to touch his arm. "Hey."

Eliot frowns and looks at her. "Hey what?"

"I thought you said I could go see Nate."

"I did." Eliot nods.

"Then why are we going home?"

He didn't want to tell her that Nate wasn't better, that he'd been wrong. "Ryna, honey, I just figured you should do your homework first, have dinner."

"I don't have homework, we went on a field trip, remember? And I'm not hungry. I want to see Nate."

"Not today, darling. He's…not ready for you."

"Well tough. I'm ready for him. I've been waiting. I've been good about it. I'm all done being good about it. Now."

She crosses her arms and looks out the window and Eliot knows he's the grown up here, knows he doesn't have to give in, that it's wrong to give in, but he also knows she can make his life hell if he doesn't. He sighs and turns at the next signal light, sending them back toward the place they've been hiding Nate.

Once he parks he turns to look at his daughter. "You listen to me, young lady. This is very important. You do not touch him. You do not get within an arm's reach of him. He's is still very sick."

Her blue eyes are big and something close to fear shines in them for a moment before she nods and opened the door on her side of the truck. Hardison opens his mouth to say something as they pass through, but Eliot just holds up his hand and keeps moving. "Okay, now, he's lost a lot of weight, and he looks pretty bad." Eliot says and Ryna responds by crossing her arms. "Right."

He gets the room open and holds out his hand for her to take. After only a slight hesitation, she takes it and follows him inside. He stops them well away from the bed where Nate is chained and feels her shiver. "Can he hear us?"

Eliot nods slowly. "Yeah, he can. Sometimes he wakes up when I talk to him."

"Can we go a little closer?" Her feet shuffle on the floor as Eliot guides her forward. "Nate?"

Her voice is tiny in the open space of the room, but he sees Nate flinch a little. She clears her throat and tries again. "Nate, it's Ryna. Eliot brought me to see you."

Eliot is surprised when Nate's eyes open, focusing first on him, then on Ryna, who grins up at Eliot. "R-r-r…" Nate licks his lips, the blue in his eyes clearer than they'd been before. "Ryna."

She pulls a little on Eliot's hand, trying to get closer. Nate's eyes widen and Eliot pulls her back, picking her up when she starts to protest. "I told you, not to close." Eliot says softly in her ear, his eyes on Nate's face.

"He needs us." Ryan whispers. "Look at him."

Eliot doesn't need to look at Nate to know what he needs. He can feel it in the pit of his stomach. "Just a little longer." Eliot whispers back, though he's not sure if it's meant for her or for himself.

"Hungry." Nate murmurs, his voice rough. Ryna shivers in Eliot's arms. 

Eliot moves just a little closer, holding Ryna away from Nate. He looks into Nate's face, looking for signs of the monster in his eyes. There is only confusion and hunger, need and affection. "Nate?"

He licks his lips and nods. "Okay. Just…hold on."

He takes Ryna to the door. "You wait outside for just a minute, okay?" 

"No, I want to stay." She pushes back at him, but he puts his foot down.

"Ryna, if you want me to help Nate, you have to wait outside. If this works, I'll let you back in."

"Promise?"

"Promise." Eliot pulls the door shut and crosses back to the bed, unwrapping the bandages on his wrist, squeezing the wound and coaxing blood from it. As the first drops land on his mouth, Nate's lips open, his head lifting off the bed, his hands straining at the chains. His eyes don't close, just stay focused on Eliot and Eliot finds himself lowering his wrist until the skin brushes Nate's lips.

Nate is shaking, but he's in control, taking what Eliot offers and even though he could now, not biting, not draining. He lowers his head and his eyes finally close. Eliot draws his hand away, pressing his thumb against his wrist to stop the bleeding. 

Eliot slips to his knees by the bed, wrapping his wrist again. His hand rests on Nate's chest, his eyes watching Nate's face. "I'm okay." Nate says softly, his eyes still closed.

Eliot feels relief wash through him, stinging at the corners of his eyes. "Nate, man…you had me scared."

Nate's hand moves, as much as it can with the chains and Eliot's hand slips into his, holding it tight. "I wasn't sure…"

Nate is quiet and when Eliot looks up, Nate is staring at the door. Eliot turns to find Ryna standing there. "Ryna, I told you to wait outside."

"I want to see." Ryna says, stepping into the room.

"It's okay. Let her see what I am." Nate says, his voice oddly hollow. 

She lips into Eliot's lap, her small hand joining Eliot's on Nate's. "I told Eliot you would get better."

Her free hand rubs over the bandages on Eliot's wrist where fresh blood stained them. "Did he eat?"

Eliot nods, unable to find words. 

"She knows?" Nate asks.

"I'm not a moron." Ryna answers for Eliot. "It didn't take much to figure out."

There's pain in the expression on Nate's face, even as his thumb caresses the back of Ryna's hand. "I'm sorry." Nate says, turning his face away.

Ryna's hands shift to the metal around Nate's wrists, looking up at Eliot. "You're going to let him go now, right?" He hears Nate's gasp, feels the way he pulls away, despite the restraints.

"No." Nate growls out. "No. Not yet."

"We have to make sure he's okay first, Ryna."

Her eyes are big as she turns back to Nate, standing and putting her little hand on his chest. "You remember now, right? You remember who I am?"

Nate nods, his eyes closed. "I remember everything Ryna."

Eliot hears what he doesn't say, the guilt, the sinking feeling of knowing he'd killed innocent people, that he'd killed a child. He pulls Ryna back to him. "Let's let Nate sleep, okay, Ryna? He needs rest."

Her little hand moves to fast for Eliot to stop her, grabbing Nate's chin, her fingers way too close to his mouth. "You get better. Eliot needs you to come home." She leans in then, whispering something in Nate's ear before she lets Eliot pull her away.

Eliot breathes a little easier once they're outside the room, but he's still a little dizzy from the feeding and from Ryna's boldness. He pulls his hands through his hair and exhales slowly. Parker's head pops out of the room they're hunkered down in when he's not in the vault with Nate. 

"We got him."

"Sterling?" Eliot bustles Ryna into the room, where Sophie and Hardison are watching Hardison's laptop.

"Right there. He went for it." Sophie says, sounding a little surprised. Sterling's face turns to the camera, holding up the package. He pulls a telephone out of the box and turns his back to the camera. A few seconds later a message pops up on the screen.

"I want Nathan Ford."

Eliot can feel his heart pounding, anger bubbling up inside him. "Sophie, take Ryna home."

"No." Ryna stomps her foot, grabbing at Eliot's hand. 

"Eliot, stick to the plan."

"Fuck the plan." Eliot points to the screen, to Sterling's smug face. "He knows something."

"All the more reason to go carefully." Sophie insists. "Hardison, send the response."

Hardison looks to Eliot, his fingers on the keyboard. Eliot fumes, but nods. 

"Make an offer."

Sterling stares at the camera for a moment, then a response pops up. "6pm, bus station." Then he drops the phone in the trash can and walks out of the camera's range.

"Well, that went well." Sophie says, rubbing her hands together. "Parker, you and Hardison get us set up. Eliot take Ryna home. We'll come by after the meet."

"You can't expect me to sit this out." Eliot says, hands on his hips. Ryna echoes his posture and his glare at Sophie.

"Me too." 

Eliot shakes his head and turns to Ryna. "No."

"Yes."

"No." 

"It **is** something Sterling won't expect." Parker says thoughtfully.

"No." Eliot says emphatically, shaking his head. "No."

"Then take her home." Sophie responds, eyebrow raised at him. 

"She's just a little girl."

"Exactly." Hardison says, his eyes lighting up. "He won't expect it, he won't hurt her. We coach her, put a comm. in her ear. Less risk for all of us."

"Except for Ryna." Eliot counters.

"She'll be fine." 

"I want to help." Ryna says, tugging on his hand. 

Eliot is out numbered and he knows it, but he doesn't like it. Doesn't like any of it. "He hurts her, I kill him. And then the rest of you."


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team baits Sterling, and Nate is starting to feel better after Eliot feeds him.

"I don't like this." Eliot's voice is something of a growl through the comm. 

"Noted." Sophie responds, her own voice curt as they both watch Ryna from vantage points on opposite ends of the bus station. "Ryna, honey, you're doing fine. Just like we told you now."

Ryna slides the backpack off and hops up onto the bench beside Sterling. He looks at her, then away, his eyes scanning the room for sight of one of them. 

"Hi."

Sterling looks at her, frowning. "Beat it kid, I'm waiting for someone."

Her little feet dangle under the bench. "Yeah, I know. I'm here to negotiate."

Eliot watches Sterling look at her, then lift his eyes to a balcony where there was a young man leaning entirely too casually on the railing. "Parker?"

"I've got it." Eliot nods and turns his eyes back to his daughter.

"I don't negotiate with children." Sterling says. 

Ryna hops off the bench. "Okay, nice talking to ya." 

"Easy, not too fast." Sophie instructs and Ryna turns to look at him as she lifts her backpack.

"You want Nathan Ford, you talk to me. I'm going over there." Ryna walks away then, slowly, to the end of the row of benches where she sits, setting her backpack beside her. She glances at Eliot now that she's closer to him, and resists the urge to look back to see if Sterling is following. 

Sterling stands, adjusting his suit jacket, his eyes darting out to another of his men, this time on a bench on the opposite side of the room. "Hardison?" Eliot says, his eyes skipping from the mark back to Ryna.

"Yeah, I'm on it."

"Okay, Ryna, check your watch. Let him know the offer has a time limit." Sophie says, and Ryna lifts her arm, checking the time on the oversized watch that Parker had given her.

Sterling paces a little, then seems to make up his mind and heads toward Ryna. He sits, leans forward to narrow his eyes at her. "What's it going to be?"

Ryna waits a heartbeat, then crosses her arms. "I don't like your attitude."

Eliot shook his head. "Ryna, don't push him. Just deliver the message."

Ryna huffed. "A million dollars." 

Sterling actually laughs and seems to relax, sitting back on the bench and stretching his arms along the back of it. "Oh, is that all? What makes you think he's worth that?"

Eliot could see her bristling, but Sophie's voice was soothing over the comm. "Easy, Ryna. Go on."

"A million dollars by sundown tomorrow. And we'll bring him to you."

Sterling's eyes jump from Ryna to a woman near the turnstile out to buses. "Hardison, that the last of them?" Eliot asks. 

"Unless he snuck some in when we weren't looking. Parker, can you tag her?"

"On it."

"Okay, Ryna, honey, time to wrap it up." Sophie says. Ryna pulls a piece of paper out of her pocket as she stands. 

She holds it out to Sterling. "Address. Be there at sundown tomorrow. Bring the money."

Sterling hesitates, looking at the paper, then scanning the room again. "I got other people interested, Mr. Sterling." Ryna says, shoving her hand closer. "Sundown." 

Sterling takes the paper at last. Ryna grabs her backpack, and Eliot has to smile at the skillful way she bumps Sterling with it, knowing that the paper had been clean, but the backpack is laced with powder that emits a small radioactive signal, and with that kind of impact, it was all over his clothes and skin.

"Walk away, Ryna. He's going to follow you, come right for me and into the ladies room." 

Eliot watches Ryna walk down the long row on benches away from him. Sterling stands to follow and after a heartbeat, Eliot follows him. Ryna's pigtails disappear into the bathroom and Sterling stops, talking into his sleeve.

Eliot doesn't quite hear what he says, and when he hears Sophie give the all clear, he reluctantly walks away, leaving Sterling to wonder how long a little girl can take in the bathroom.

 

He sees their faces in his mind, even though he never knew them. Their smell fills his nose, the taste of their blood slick and hot on his tongue. Young blood, sweet, tender…the skin breaks so easily, the fire burns so bright…and the older, thicker blood, filled with life experience, with the spice of emotions fully realized…it arouses him even as it repulses him.

The animal mind and the human war within him and he shakes in the chains that keep him on the small bed. He can smell Eliot's approach, even through the iron door and the cement walls. His stomach gurgles and his fangs descend.

Eliot opens the door, letting in a flood of light that makes Nate cringe and close his eyes. "Sorry." Eliot murmurs and shoves the door mostly closed. "I brought you food." He holds up a bag. Nate can smell the blood inside it and licks his lips. "We had it tested to make sure it's clean."

He feels Eliot's eyes, knows he needs to speak, needs to assure Eliot he's okay. "Hungry." Nate manages, his eyes widening as Eliot steps closer.

He's nodding, putting the bag down. "A little at a time. There's plenty. And me…once you've taken the edge off."

That edge is razor sharp and Nate can't swear he wouldn't have already had Eliot nearly drained if he was loose. The pounding of his heart echoes in the space, beckoning Nate to feed…to take what is offered and slake his thirst at long last. Eliot seems to understand, easing to his knees by the bed. His hand dips into the bag and comes out with a container, taking off the lid and letting the smell of blood fill the room. "Let's get you up a little."

His free hand slides behind Nate's head, holds him up as he brings the container up to Nate's mouth. It's barely warm, stale, nothing like the rush of warm, fresh, living blood, but it's something…and it slides into his mouth, fills him with lust for more and he swallows at it greedily, gulping it down until Eliot pulls the container away.

"Easy." Eliot murmurs, wiping at Nate's mouth.

It would be so easy to bite that hand, take everything he needs. Nate closes his eyes and concentrates on control, on feeling the blood moving through him, warming him.

His fingers flex, curling against the mattress under him, testing the strength of the iron that holds him. Eliot is watching him and Nate blinks up at him, nodding slowly. "Better." His voice sounds like he swallowed glass, but it seems to relieve Eliot who lifts the container again.

"More?"

Nate nods, lifts his head to accept the container, swallowing rapidly. When it's empty, Eliot pulls away, digging in his pocket and coming out with a set of keys. A thrill of fear, of panic runs through him, right alongside craving and desire. "No." Nate shakes his head, pulls back as much as he can.

Eliot doesn't let it stop him though, unlocking one wrist from the restraints and reaching for the second.

"Eliot."

He looks Nate in the eye and lifts a second container. "I ain't gonna sit and feed you when you can do it yourself, Nate."

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Then don't." Eliot puts the container in Nate's hands and sits back.

The blood in this one is fresher, the smell of it strong. Nate lifts it and gulps it down, faster than before, closing his eyes as he starts to feel the strength returning.

Eliot unlocks Nate's ankles, rubbing them lightly where the skin is chaffed. "I brought you a change of clothes. Shower's going to have to wait until we get home."

Nate can feel himself shaking his head before those words even sink in. "No, I can't…"

Eliot's hands slide up over his legs. "You can. You are coming home."

Nate closes his eyes, trying to shut out the heat and smell of Eliot. It's too much and he trembles with the effort. When he opens them again, Eliot is right there, in his face. "I'm not letting you wallow in this." Eliot says sternly. "This isn't your fault."

"I killed them, Eliot…I could have killed Ryna."

Eliot's eyes narrow and he nods tightly. "Yes, you did and yes you could have. But it wasn't something you chose to do." Eliot guides his legs to the floor. "Can you stand?"

Nate lets Eliot help him up, wobbling a little as the blood works its way into him. Eliot's hand is on the small of his back, a small point of heat in an otherwise cold room. "I could kill you."

"But you won't." Eliot says confidently, stepping in front of Nate. His heart is pounding, belaying the calmness in his voice. Eliot's blue eyes skip over his face, up to Nate's eyes and slowly, he tilts his head, offering his neck. "You know I trust you."

Nate wants to pull away, wants to deny the craving because the control he feels is fleeting and the blood he's had isn't nearly enough and this is Eliot…the fangs descend on their own, and Eliot's hand snakes into Nate's hair, pulling him closer, pressing his face into the crook of Eliot's neck where he can all but taste the hot, sweet rush. 

"Go on." Eliot growls at him.

"No." Nate growls back, trying to push away.

"You need it." Eliot insists. His hand is tight in Nate's hair, pulling him in until Nate's mouth is on Eliot's skin. "I want it. I miss you."

The vulnerability in Eliot's voice is what does him in, and Nate bites, clinging to Eliot as the hot, thick blood fills his mouth. The roar of hunger inside him is deafening, drowning out the steady beat of Eliot's heart.

Eliot's hand loosens in his hair, the strong column of him wavers and Nate knows he needs to stop. He pulls back, Eliot limp in his arms. "Fuck." Nate gets them turned, lays Eliot on the bed. "Eliot?"

The groan is enough to at least tell Nate that Eliot is okay, even if he is drained. The blood thunders through him, restoring him quickly. It still isn't enough, his hunger only barely slaked. Nate dives for the bag, draining carton after carton of blood until his starts to feel sated. He can't remember ever being this hungry, not since that first time, when he woke after the change.

There are clothes in the bag, wrapped up in another bag and under them, a bottle of Jack. Nate lifts the Jack, downing half the small bottle quickly, feeling the familiar burn as it flows into him, dulling the edges and easing him back into his skin.

Nate dresses and looks back at Eliot. If he cares for the man at all, he should leave. He knows now that this was just pretend, that he can't be trusted with human life…and maybe Eliot will never forgive him, but Nate can't keep doing this now. 

He gets out the door, into the hall. It's dark and cold and he can hear Eliot trying to get up now inside. Three steps in one direction, he's facing Sophie, her arms crossed, her eyebrow lifted. 

"Where do you think you're going?" Sophie asks, her tone terse.

"Let me by Sophie." Nate says.

"No. You want out, you have to earn it."

"Don't make me hurt you."

"You mean like you're planning to hurt Eliot?"

"I have to get away from him, Sophie, before I do anymore damage."

Sophie takes a few steps closer to him. "Do you have any idea the damage you will do to him if you leave? To Ryna? I never knew you were a coward, Nate."

Her voice is low, it doesn't carry beyond them. Her eyes lift up to his. "He loves you, Nate, like he's never cared for anyone before. You and that little girl."

Nate can hear the voice on her comm., even without one of his own. Parker. "Oh, this is not good."

"Parker? What is it?"

"The muscle is all in one place. Security is tight, top of the line. I see…five snipers on the roof."

"What about Sterling?"

Hardison's voice takes the place of Parker's. "He's in his apartment. Hasn't moved since he got there."

"Sterling?" Nate steps closer to Sophie and she holds up a hand.

"Parker, where are you?"

"Just outside the city, big mansion. Now that's weird."

"What?" Hardison asks.

"They have cats. Big cats."

"Lots of people have cats—"

"Panthers, Hardison. No one has panthers."

"Okay, children, focus please." Sophie interrupts. "Parker, can you tell who the house belongs to?"

"Not seeing much inside. Oh, I think I got made."

"Get her out of there." Nate growls and Sophie turns away, one hand on her ear.

"Parker?"

"Talk later, running now."

"Sophie? Nate!" 

Before he has time to react, he has an armful of Ryna, hugging him and babbling excitedly. The scent of her skin is warm and so much like Eliot. The hunger that he's barely taken the edge off of bubbles under the surface…it would be so easy…so…hot and fresh…Just like that little girl in the alley.

That's enough to snap him back to the moment, to Ryna in his arms talking a mile a minute. "Why is she here?" Nate asks Sophie when Ryna takes a breath.

"We didn't have time to take her home. She was sleeping."

"I had a dream. I woke up." She cranes her neck, looking around them. "Where's Eliot?"

"Eliot is…resting." Nate says, setting her down. "Like you should be."

"Not tired now."

Nate's head is spinning, it's all too much and he needs a drink, but he left the bottle in the room where Eliot is and that's too much to face. Ryna squirms in his arms until he puts her down. Eliot is moving now and Nate feels trapped, caught between his need to get away and his need to believe that he can escape what he's done…what he's become.

"I lost them." Parker's voice in Sophie's ear says and Nate sags a little into the wall. The rush of blood and the strength it gave him is waning. He's going to need to feed well before he's strong enough. 

Eliot's holding the door frame, leaning into it, his eyes dark as they track to Nate's. 

"I think maybe now is a good time for you to fill me in on what's going on." Nate says. Eliot nods slowly and reaches for him, using Nate's shoulder to pull himself upright. "Get Parker and Hardison back to the office. Eliot and I will meet you there. Take Ryna with you." Nate says to Sophie.

"I want to ride with you and Eliot!"

Eliot's eyes don't leave Nate's. "Ryna, go with Sophie."

There's a whole different kind of hunger building now in Nate's stomach, one that has little to do with blood, and everything to do with the way Eliot is watching him, with the smell of arousal and the taste of left over fear. Nate almost doesn't notice when Sophie leaves, but for the protesting sounds of a little girl getting dragged away.

He steps in, pressing Eliot into the wall. "I thought we lost you, man." Eliot says, his voice husky and deep.

"Nearly did." Nate responds before licking over the still oozing wound. "Maybe should have."

Eliot's head shakes, but at first the only sound is a low moan as Nate nuzzles his neck and moves his thigh between Eliot's legs. Eliot moves to accommodate him, his left leg hooking around Nate's hip to bring him closer. "No." Eliot growls out finally. "Never."

His hands fist in Nate's shirt, tugging him close, his lips on Nate's, his tongue demanding. Nate opens his mouth and takes him in, tasting the urgency of his arousal. "Too long…" Eliot murmurs as he pulls back.

"We should go." Nate says, even as his hand joins his thigh in pressing in on Eliot's cock. Eliot rocks against him, his eyes closing. "They'll be waiting."

Eliot's hands move to Nate's stomach, sliding down until he's cupping Nate's cock, urging it to hardness. "Let them wait." Eliot tightens his hand, tilts his hips forward on Nate's. "Want you." 

He knows they shouldn't, that Eliot's still weak from the feeding, that Nate's needs are far from controlled, but he can't seem to stop himself from ripping Eliot's zipper open, turning him and shoving him face first into the wall.

It will be dirty, messy, and there's nothing to ease the way, just the frantic need pounding through him now, as Eliot pulls his jeans down past his ass and leans into the wall. Nate's own zipper is stubborn and he nearly rips the pants in an effort to get it open, then he's pushing hard into Eliot's tight body.

Eliot's a tense line against the wall, his forehead pressing into the cold stone, his hands braced on the surface, his ass pushing back at Nate. Nate hisses into the skin at his neck, one hand on Eliot's hip, holding him as he pulls back and thrusts back in. Eliot's hand fists against the wall, pounding against it as Nate quickens the pace.

Nate's free hand moves under Eliot, stroking his cock in counterpoint. Eliot groans when Nate's teeth graze his shoulder. He shouldn't feed, not so soon, but he can't stop himself from biting down, the rich copper taste flooding his mouth as Eliot spills over his hand. Nate growls as he comes too, pressing Eliot further into the wall until he can get his knees solid again.

Eliot's panting as he pulls up his jeans. "Feel better?" He grins as he turns, wiping at the new wound.

Nate swallows the guilt and looks away. "You okay?"

Eliot grabs his arm and pulls him back. "I'm fine."

When Nate doesn't respond, Eliot pulls harder, yanking him into an embrace. His kiss is softer than before, almost gentle. "You hear me?"

Nate nods. "Yeah, I hear you."

"Then let's get moving. Now that you're back in the game, we've got an advantage."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eliot and Nate have some alone time that doesn't actually go very well, and when they go to meet Sterling, that goes even worse.

Eliot's head is buzzing as he tucks Ryna in on the couch in his office, finally asleep again. Nate paces around them, a different kind of buzz fueling his movements. They had stopped at a local hospital, breaking in to the blood bank to satisfy Nate's need. 

It's helping, but not as much as living blood would, but Eliot had serious doubts Nate would be able to function if he hurt anyone else right now, and he'd already drained Eliot as far as he would dare for a while.

"Tell me again?" Nate says and Eliot sighs, pushing himself up to standing.

"Conference room." He is tired. Exhausted really. The whole nightmare has beaten him down, and even having Nate back on his feet, more or less, might not be enough to see them clear. Hardison and Sophie are already in the conference room when they get there and Parker joins them a moment later, her hands wrapped around a mug.

"Hardison." Eliot growls at the hacker who immediately brought the screen to life. 

"Okay. So this is what I've got. This is the property Parker tracked out muscle to. It's owned by a company that handles exotic animals."

"What?" Eliot frowns at him, then looks at Parker. "Animals?"

"Big cats mostly." 

"Handles, how?" Nate asks, leaning back in his seat. 

"Not clear. I found licenses to have and export exotic pets. They have a vet on staff." His fingers fly on the keyboard and the images shift to show the picture of a man in a lab coat. "Meet Dr. Harold Highmore. He's the only resident of the entire place aside from this woman." He clicks his remote and a woman with long brown hair streaked with gold filled the other side of the screen. "Katherine Katja, who owns the company. More interesting is the fact that Dr. Highmore is not, in fact a licensed veterinary doctor. He's an MD with extensive time in research."

"What kind of research?" Sophie leans in to see around Nate, her eyes showing her own fatigue.

"Blood borne pathogens for ten years out of medical school, and then he took a spot at Columbia researching the affect of certain hallucinogenics on the blood supply, before he fell off the grid for about 8 years after his only daughter, Felicia, was attacked by some wild animal while she was out hiking."

Hardison flicks the remote and a young woman's smiling face fills the screen. "This is Felicia. The attack was vicious. Left her paralyzed and blind. Daddy dearest left his job to take care of her."

"So, he's behind the drugged up blood supply?" Parker asks, sitting on the corner of the table.

"But why? It doesn't make any sense." Nate stands, pacing around the room. "I don't know this guy, or his daughter. Why would he target me?"

"And how does this guy tie to Sterling?" Eliot asks. 

"Y'all did not give me a lot of time for this. I don't have all the answers." Hardison's fingers fly over the keyboard and the picture of Katherine Katja reappears. "All I know for certain is that our friend Sterling has received several phone calls over the last few year from Katja, and he's flown somewhere to meet her every time."

"None of this makes sense." Nate frowns at him. "I get Sterling wanting to bust us, but you said he was only interested in me." He paces around the room, ending up behind Eliot, hands on Eliot's shoulders. 

They're cold and made Eliot think of the vault where he'd been hidden all these weeks while they cleaned him up. Where Eliot had watched him waste away, starving. He shivers and pulls forward, standing up. "He wants you, and he's willing to pay."

"He didn't agree to pay." Sophie counters. 

"Didn't disagree either." Parker adds, turning to look at them. 

"Where's he getting the money?"

"Ain't his." Hardison says, flashing a bunch of accounts on the screen. "He's close to tapped out. He's spent an awful lot of money hunting you down."

"Katja?" Nate asks, then he shakes his head. "But I don't know her either. Why does she want me…what does she want with me? The drug didn't kill me, wouldn't kill me. It just made me…" He wipes over his face and looks away. Eliot wants to go to him, but knew he'd need to come to terms with this on his own. "Made me very hungry with very little control. It made me strong, broke down the barriers between my human and vampire sides…Who does that benefit?"

"You were drawn to an area where the drug was readily available, drawn to blood that contained that drug…and that drug was expensive to produce, but spread over a poor area." Sophie muses, getting up to pace.

"They wanted you to clean the area out." Eliot says, remembering the bodies that littered the alleys, not all of them dead because of Nate, but enough of them. "Looking to move in? Take over the neighborhood?"

"Then why kill the squatters and homeless and runaways?" Sophie asked, shaking her head. "No, if that's what they wanted they would go after the property owners."

"Hardison, check the cities Sterling met Katja in." Nate said, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"What am I looking for?"

"A string of violent, unsolved murders, blood drained. They'd be runaways and homeless, in a seemingly worthless part of town."

"You're on to something." Eliot can see it in his eyes. "Going to tell us what?"

"Not yet. It's just a theory, an idea." Nate turns to him. "You need to get some sleep."

Eliot frowns at him, at the sudden change. "I'm fine."

Nate pulls him aside. "No, I took too much and I'm going to need more."

"I'm fine." Eliot ducks into the hallway away from the others. "Take what you need. I'm fine."

Nate shakes his head. "No, you don't even realize how close I came to killing you back there in that vault. No. You need a good meal and sleep. I'll find another source for now."

"Nate…" There are any number of reasons he doesn't want Nate finding "another source" not the least of which was the fact that they still have no idea what the hell is going on, but Nate's face is set and hard. "Fine. But you're coming home with me. If you think that quick fuck in the hallway was enough after what we've been through, you don't know me all that well."

Nate looks for a minute like he would argue, then nods tightly. "We better get going then. It's almost sunrise."

 

Eliot doesn't like leaving Ryna with Sophie and Parker again, and she wasn't going to like it either, but he has to think practically. Nate is tightly strung and needy and the sexual need is no where near sated. They need time, but don't have enough of it. Less than twelve hours now.

He knows Nate needs to feed, he's learned to see the signs, and after so long without anything…well, Eliot doesn't know how that works for vampires. All he knows is that hunger in his eyes, the way his hands tremble, then clench.

Nate won't go past the kitchen when they get home though, not until Eliot stops to eat. Frustrated, Eliot throws a couple of burgers in a pan and cracks open a beer, forget that it isn't even quiet dawn. He deserves it after the last couple of weeks.

He drains half the beer and barely lets the burgers get past medium rare before he throws them on a plate and wolfs them down, watching Nate watch him. He washes the last of the burger down with the last of the beer. "Satisfied?"

Nate nods, but there's still hunger and need in his eyes. He licks his lips as Eliot stands and Eliot can feel the restraint, the tight hold that is possibly the only thing keeping Nate from feeding on him as voraciously as Eliot just ate his own meal. 

"Bed." He doesn't look to see if Nate follows, just sheds his clothes as he moves through the house and into the bedroom, double checking that the airtight blinds are closed and no stray light was going to get in the way of getting what he wants.

He is nearly naked, down to just his socks when he feels Nate behind him, the cold skin brushing over Eliot's back. Eliot turns, dragging Nate in to kiss deeply. Nate's hands skate over his back, down to his ass, pulling him in closer. Nate growls as Eliot pulls at his clothes, all attempt at verbal communication lost in the rush of need as Eliot pulls him toward the bed. 

He manages to get the shirt off, the pants tangle in Nate's legs as Eliot falls over backward to the bed. With a frustrated growl, Nate rips them free, crawling after Eliot, covering Eliot's body with his own. 

His eyes are dark as Eliot spreads his legs and guides him in, his movements stiff, barely controlled. His cock is hard and when Eliot touches it, Nate makes a noise that is half growl, half whimper, sounding like a wounded animal in desperate need. 

"Easy." Eliot murmurs as he slicks Nate's cock with lube from the bedside table. "Right here." Nate sinks into him, hands pushing Eliot to the bed, holding him there as their bodies rock together. "Right here."

Nate's eyes close as Eliot shifts, tightening around him, tilting his hips to give him a better angle. It's easy to tell as Nate's face changes and his teeth graze Eliot's skin that this isn't going to last any longer than the first time in the hallway outside the vault. Nate shakes, clearly fighting the urge to bite down on that spot where Eliot's life beats. Eliot tilts his head, exposes his neck a little more and Nate moans in denial. 

They both know he needs the blood. Eliot's hands snakes up, into Nate's hair, pulling his face down closer until his lips and tongue are on Eliot's skin, the pulse beating just under his lips. Nate's close to orgasm and Eliot knows all it will take to take them both over is one bite.

There's a split second when Eliot thinks maybe he won't do it, then he feels Nate surrender, feels his body, warmed by the sex, covering him, his teeth sharp as they cut through the skin. There's the familiar arousal, the orgasm smearing their stomachs, the heat of Nate's come, the rush of blood…and then darkness.

 

He wakes to the copper tang of blood in his mouth and an empty bed. Eliot sits up slowly, his body lethargic, though he can feel the blood Nate has fed him working its magic. "Nate?" His arm itches, and he scratches at it, squinting in the gloom of the room. There's a mark there, like he'd had blood drawn recently.

Eliot swings his legs down to the floor, reaching for the robe on the chair and padding out of the bedroom. He finds Nate in the living room, part way into a bottle of Johnny Walker, pacing. He isn't alone.

Eliot stops in the archway, his eyes darting from Nate to Hardison and back. "Nate?"

His step hitches and he flinches, but doesn't respond. Eliot looks back at Hardison. "What happened?"

Hardison looks up, his eyes wet, scared. He shakes his head and pulls his computer closer.

"One of you say something." Eliot growls, his anger clear.

"You should get dressed." Nate says, finally turning toward him, but not looking at him. "It's almost sunset."

"Sunset?" Eliot shakes his head. "You let me sleep all day?"

"Let you nothing." Hardison murmurs, though he flinches when Eliot turns his way.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Eliot asks.

"Don't take it out on him, it wasn't his fault." Nate sounds…defeated. "I took too much. You shouldn't have…we shouldn't have. I almost killed you."

"Obviously I'm not dead."

"I…know. You should be. Hell, I almost had to turn you to keep you alive." Nate lifted the bottle and drank deep. "And I didn't have the strength to do that."

"That why I feel so dragged out?" Eliot asks, moving around Nate to head for the kitchen. He's hungry and starting to feel the rush that comes with the blood. The table is littered with blood containers, empty Styrofoam cups from the butcher and several IV bags from a blood bank. 

"Eliot…" Nate follows him, though he keeps his distance. "I had to give you blood."

Eliot nods. "I get that."

Nate shakes his head. "I had to give you my blood, but I couldn't give you enough…not without turning you. Hardison brought more."

"Okay, so you gave me a transfusion, doesn't explain why you're so freaked out." Eliot pulls leftovers out of the fridge and digs out a fork, not bothering with heating up the chow mein left over from the last time he couldn't stomach eating while Nate was out of it.

Nate makes a distressed sort of noise and pulls Eliot close. "I had to feed."

Eliot nods slowly. "I see that."

Nate's head shakes and Hardison appears in the door, and slowly Eliot begins to realize what Nate is trying to tell him. He backs off, but Nate holds him until he yanks free. "I get it." Eliot growls, tossing the chow mein on the counter. His stomach twists around the knowledge, around the idea that Nate had fed from someone other than him.

He shouldn't be jealous, and he knows that. It's no easy thing to be marked that way by a vampire. He swallows around the emotion and breathes in. "Eliot."

He holds up a hand. "I'm fine." 

"I can tell you're not." Nate steps in closer, suddenly crowding Eliot into the counter. He's painfully aware of Hardison hovering in the doorway. His voice is low, deep. "You know I would never--"

"And yet, you did." Eliot cuts him off. 

"You were going to die, Eliot." Nate's voice doesn't lift and he doesn't move. "I wasn't going to let that happen."

Hardison's phone rings and for a moment none of them move, then Hardison was slipping away, raising his phone. "Yeah. No, we'll be there."

He stands in the doorway, phone in his hand. "I don't mean to rush you, Nate, but Sophie's waiting."

Nate nods. "You should stay here, rest."

"Like hell." Eliot moves around him.

"Eliot…"

"Maybe he should stay here, rest." Eliot says with more venom than he thinks he means, glaring at Hardison as he passes. "He's the one you didn't give your blood too. I'm more than fine."

When Eliot emerges from the bedroom in clothes, Nate is alone. "Hardison went to meet Sophie."

"Good for him." Eliot knows he sounds petulant, but he can't help the way it feels.

"You're angry."

"Of course I'm angry." Eliot grabs his keys and they leave, headed for his truck. "I'm pissed. Hardison?"

"Is there someone else you would rather I called?" Nate asks as they climb into the truck, his voice pinched. "Would it matter who it was?"

If he's honest with himself there isn't anyone Nate could turn to that would make Eliot happy. "But Hardison?" 

"It could have been Sophie." Nate offers as Eliot turns them toward the rendezvous spot. The plan was to tease Sterling out, figure out who was pulling his strings. Hardison and Sophie were set up at two vantage points to watch. 

Eliot adjusts his comm. as they stop. "Hardison?"

"Sterling is on approach. Don't see anything else."

"Sophie?" Nate asks, his eyes sweeping the empty lot. 

"No sign of any followers."

"I don't like it." Nate's nose crinkles and his hand falls on Eliot's, stopping him when he would have gotten out of the car. 

Eliot frowns at him, eyes sweeping the lot. There's nothing moving. The trees that line the far edge offer some cover, so it's conceivable that there is something hiding back there.

"You sense something?"

Nate opens his door slowly, sniffing the air. "Maybe…"

Eliot climbs out, watching Nate circle the truck, his whole body signaling danger. "Get back in the truck." Nate says, though he still hasn't pointed out what the problem is. 

Sterling's car is pulling in, his face gloating, then transformed into horror. Eliot feels it seconds before his face is slammed into the truck, nails digging into his shirt. Nate's voice screams in his head as he goes down, rolling as he falls in an attempt to shake free or do a little damage of his own.

He's aware of blood, nails, teeth…his shoulder rips under the onslaught, skin tearing, muscles ripping, but he gets free, pulls loose and drags himself away. Nate is nearby and there's a cat…a big black panther he thinks…but that can't be right…he shakes his head and staggers to his feet. Nate is wrestling with the cat and Sterling is standing dumbfounded in between the vehicles, staring as Nate roars his fury into a sky suddenly blacker than it was before.

Thunder rumbles and in it's wake Eliot hears a voice, a purr. "Come Eliot. Come to me." He shakes his head again, staggering toward Sterling now.

"Gun." Eliot falls into Sterling, numb fingers fumbling at his waist for the gun he knows the man is carrying, but when he lifts it he can't see. The rain is cold and his hands feel like heavy sand.

An inhuman howl splits the air and Eliot falls to his knees, vomiting empty into the dirt.

"Eliot? Eliot? What's going on?" Hardison's voice fills his ear and Sterling is hovering.

"Nate…" Eliot grabs Sterling's jacket and tries to pull himself up. "Where is Nate?"

Suddenly he can _smell_ Nate. He's covered in red rain, eyes wild as he grabs Eliot and shoves him into the truck. He can _smell_ Sterling too, all fear and sweat and indecision as he is shoved into the truck with Eliot. It's too much and Eliot collapses against Nate as he slides in behind the wheel. Too much.

The fire in his wounds is a thing alive, eating him, marking him, changing him. "Eliot? Can you hear me?" Nate's voice is soothing, but Eliot can't respond, falling into the fire.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eliot's been bitten and Nate isn't sure he can save him, especially when he's got Sterling to deal with and all the signs point to Eliot turning rather quickly into something that isn't vampire and isn't cat, but has elements of both.

"Eliot? Can you hear me?" Nate pulled his hand away from Eliot's shoulder, cursing as it came away bloody. 

"Nate, what the hell is going on?"

"Not now Hardison." Nate growled into the comm. "Just listen and do. I need you to meet us at the vault. Bring more blood for Eliot, and bandages…Shit. Fuck. I need a whole goddamn ER." Nate whipped the truck around a corner and glanced aside at the very white-faced Sterling on the other side of Eliot. "Fast Hardison, we don't have a lot of time."

Eliot moaned beside him, his head lolling on the seat. 

"What was that thing?" Sterling asked suddenly and Nate snarled.

"That thing was the whole reason Katja's been feeding you information and leading you around like a lost puppy." Nate pulled them up in front of the building and threw the truck into park. "And now that she's got what she wants, you can bet she's going to feed you to that thing. Get out."

"What she wants?" 

Nate pulled Eliot to him. "Come on Eliot." Blue eyes blinked open, unfocused and hazy.

"Nate…"

"I've got you. Can you move?"

Eliot's feet touched the ground, but as Nate got him up, it was clear he wasn't going to be much help. Nate lifted him then over a shoulder and headed into the old building where Eliot had kept him while he was out of his head on the drug. He knew Sterling would follow, because Sterling wanted answers.

Nate got them inside and down to the vault where he laid Eliot out on the cot. "Hardison?"

"Almost there."

He could sense Sterling hovering just inside the vault door, but his attention was on Eliot. "Hey, Eliot…open your eyes for me again?"

Eliot's eyes blinked, then opened. They were a little clearer, filled with pain and anger. "Okay, good. I needed to know you were with me." Nate glanced at the shoulder, then back at Eliot. "I'm going to get this shirt off you, and get a better look, okay?"

Eliot nodded tightly, barely any movement at all. Nate took hold of the tear at the shoulder and ripped, shredding the shirt. Eliot hissed when his fingers brushed angry flesh. "Easy." Nate leaned in, sniffing at the wound. The smell of the cat was all over Eliot. "Shit. Hardison?"

"Here." Hardison rushed in, his arms filled with medical supplies. "Everything I could get my hands on."

"What are you doing? This man belongs in a hospital." Sterling said as Nate started pulling things out of bags.

"A hospital can't help him." Nate said grimly. "I'm not even sure I can."

He opened a bottle of water and gave it to Hardison. "Pour that over the wound, we need to get it cleaned out."

"Nate, I--"

"Do it." Nate growled, his hands still pulling things at out of the bags. He came to the two bags of blood and exhaled. He found the set up to get the blood into Eliot and shoved the needle into Eliot's uninjured arm. "Sterling, get over here and hold this." He held up the bag of blood.

Sterling came, still frowning, still muttering about hospitals and something about Nate playing God. Nate shoved the bag into his hand. "Just hold it, we need to get clean blood into him.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"Do what I tell you and I'll think about it."

"What about me?" Hardison asked. "Do I get to know what's going on?"

Nate spared him a quick glance as he opened a bottle of peroxide. "Yes, Hardison. Just…hold him. He's not going to like this." Hardison moved to hold Eliot's good shoulder as Nate poured the peroxide into the wound. He moved his fingers against torn skin, opening the wound more and making sure the liquid got deep inside. Eliot bucked against him as the peroxide foamed and bubbled. "It's a long shot." 

Nate shifted so he could look Eliot in the face. "He got bit by a therianthrope."

"A what?"

Nate could still taste it in his mouth, foul and disgusting. "In this case a panther, a black panther. It bit him." He caressed over Eliot's cheek. "Eliot, eyes. I need to see your eyes."

Eliot was starting to shiver and he blinked his eyes open. The blue was circled in red. "Shit. Come on Eliot, you can fight through this."

"Are you telling me that he was bit by a freaking were-cat?" Hardison asked, his voice squeaking.

"Were-cat?" Sterling echoed, disbelief evident in his voice.

"You know, like a were-wolf, only cat." Hardison responded distractedly, looking at Eliot.

"There's no such thing--"

Nate lifted his arm and left himself shift, biting his wrist quickly and holding it to Eliot's mouth.

"What the fuck!" Sterling dropped the bag of blood, but Nate didn't have time for him.

"Swallow, Eliot." Nate growled around his fangs

"I thought you gave him too much." Hardison was backing away now too. 

"I did." Eliot started convulsing, the red seeping further into the blue of his eyes before they closed. "Out. Both of you." Nate stood, shoving Hardison toward the door.

A low growl drew Nate's attention back to Eliot. Blood dripped down his chin as he sat up, his eyes all red now but for a ring of pure blue around the pupil. His head cocked to the side, his mouth opening as the transformation started. 

Nate shoved Sterling out behind Hardison and pulled the door shut. "Eliot…"

He took a step closer, then thought better of it as Eliot dropped to all fours on the floor, his back arching and a scream bouncing off the walls. Jeans ripped as his body reformed, tawny fur covering his legs and back. His face elongated, nose and mouth larger as he roared.

It seemed to take forever, the pain of the transformation howled out and reverberating through the room until suddenly it was quiet. Eliot sat in the middle of the room, his unruly hair something of a mane around a face that still somehow resembled him, bare of fur. His eyes pinned Nate to his spot near the door.

Nate took one tentative step toward him and Eliot cocked his head. He wasn't completely transformed. Nate could see his hands still had fingers, though his nails were claws at the end of them. His nose twitched, his eyes narrowing as Nate stepped closer. "Eliot?"

His mouth opened, closed and opened again, as if he was trying to figure out how it worked. "Nate?" His voice was deeper, the tone changed into something richer.

"It's going to be okay." He took another step and Eliot's posture shifted. "Not going to hurt you."

His lips curled up in a snarl and deep, guttural sound echoed through the room. "Easy Eliot."

"Blood." Eliot sniffed the air and leaned toward Nate, toward the blood on his shirt.

Nate nodded. "It's yours." He pulled the shirt off and tossed it toward Eliot, watching as he lowered his head to smell it. Then his head turned toward the door. 

"Fresh."

Nate moved so he was between Eliot and the way out. "No."

Eliot snarled at him. "Want." He rose up on his legs, front claws extended. 

"No, you don't. Not really. It's the cat."

The growl was back, deep and threatening. Nate backed up to the door slowly, his eyes on Eliot's. "Want."

"No." Nate got the door open enough he could slip through it, though he wasn’t sure he could get it closed before Eliot reached him. "Eliot, I'm sorry."

He pushed back through the opening, and set his shoulder to the door, shoving it closed as fast as he could. Inside he could hear Eliot raging, throwing himself against the door. 

"Ford—"

Nate put his hand in Sterling's face and shoved him back. "Now is not the time. Sophie?"

"Nice of you to remember me. What the hell is going on there?"

"Just listen. I need you to bring a large amount of raw meat, and dose it with tranquilizers, something to take down something the size of a small lion. We need to get him calmed down. And a very large bottle of whiskey."

"Calm who down?"

"Eliot. We need to get him to shift back."

"Shift back?"

Nate growled in frustration. "Sophie, just do what I ask. Just…get here." He pulled the comm. out of his ear and turned to Sterling and Hardison. "I take it you have eyes in there?"

Hardison nodded, his face still showing shock. "I need to see what he's doing." 

"Give me a few minutes to get set back up." Hardison ducked around Sterling and disappeared into the room he had commandeered for an office. 

"And you." Nate didn't want to have to deal with Sterling on top of everything else. "Give me one good reason I don't toss you in there with Eliot and let him tear you to shreds."

Sterling's eyes narrowed. "If you wanted me dead, you wouldn't have saved my ass back there."

True enough, Nate supposed. "I need a drink."

Sterling lifted a flask, taking a sip himself before passing it over to Nate. 

Nate sniffed the flask and then tilted it back, dumping a rather fine whiskey into his mouth.

"Are you going to explain this now?" Sterling asked as Nate handed the flask back. "What I saw in there…what you said…what exactly is going on here."

Nate leaned back against the wall. "You've been hunting me a long time. Why?"

Sterling's face went dark, hard. "I believed you killed someone I loved."

"Believed? But you're not sure now?"

Sterling crossed his arms. "I'm not sure what I believe right now. I mean…you…with the face…and the teeth…." He gestured up at his face. "What the hell is that about?"

Nate nodded. "That is just me, Sterling. I'm a vampire."

Sterling snorted and shook his head, then squinted at Nate. "No, seriously."

Nate let a small smile play at his lips. "No, seriously. I was turned just before Sam died. I chose to be turned, hoping I could save him. The blood of a vampire has amazing properties."

Sterling stared at him with something like disbelief. "You expect me to believe that?"

"Believe what you want." Nate said, turning when he heard Hardison calling him. "I don't really care." He headed in to Hardison with Sterling behind him. The computer screen in front of Hardison showed the inside of the vault. Eliot had stopped attacking the door and was prowling the room on all fours. "Can you zoom?"

Hardison nodded and adjusted the picture until they could see Eliot's face. Some of the changes were fading already. "I'll be damned." He didn't know a lot about therianthropy, and the little he did was tinged by the general dislike vampires had for them. He knew they were generally vicious killers in their animal states, fast healers and those who could learn to harness and use the beast within could be powerful individuals. "I knew a wolf once, a few years back. Lawyer."

He paced away from the screen. "Told me the first one's the worst, that usually the animal took over for days the first time. Look, Eliot's already starting to lose some of the face."

"Because of the blood?" Hardison asked, turning to look at him. 

Nate shrugged. "Honestly? I don't know. I mean…technically, a therianthrope can't change a vampire, which is why his bite did nothing to me, and I can see why vampires don't hunt and feed on them, that bastard tasted like…" He made a face and shook his head. "It doesn't matter. The two races don't mix. And yet…"

"You have an idea what's going on." Sterling said. "I can see it on your face."

Nate nodded, but his words were for Hardison. "Did you get that research I asked you for?"

His fingers moved over the keys of his laptop and the image on his screen retreated, replaced with a map. "I found three cities. San Francisco, Nashville and New York."

"She's been looking for vampires who keep human companions." Nate murmured, his fingers brushing the screen. "She uses the drug to draw them out, raise their bloodlust."

"Why?" Hardison asked, moving to look up at Nate. 

Hunger roiled throw him, the smell of Hardison filling his nose and awakening an ache inside. Nate swallowed and stood back, closing his eyes. "It's crazy…but I think she was looking for a human with vampire blood in his system. I think she was looking to make a hybrid." And he had all but given her Eliot.

"I thought you said the breeds don't mix." Sterling said.

"I thought you didn't believe me." Nate responded. 

"I'm not saying that I do, I'm just trying to make sense of what you're saying."

"They don't mix. Or, they never have. I've never even heard of such a thing…but, the advantages would be…impressive."

"Advantages?"

"The animal mind of a therianthrope is…animal. They don't always behave logically when in animal form. They act like the cat or wolf or what have you. Vampires, on the other hand, our senses are sharper, our minds lose nothing. We think like the person we are, even when hunting." He paced the room, thinking. "The only time we don't is in the first hours after turning, and when something interferes, like the drug. So, if you could combine the power and strength of both the vampire and the cat, in one person? Someone who could think and reason, even in animal form? That would be a person I wouldn't want to have angry at me."

Hardison switched back to the camera. Eliot was laying on the floor in the middle of the room, watching the door. "Eliot was already full of a lot of my blood when the cat bit him. He was as close to being a vampire as he could get without actually turning."

Nate heard the click of Sophie's shoes on the marble floor. "Okay, I'm going to stay here. Hardison, go get some sleep." He let his hand fall on Hardison's shoulder, making him look up. "Get a good eight hours and some protein before you come back, hear?"

Hardison's eyes went wide, but he nodded. Sophie came into the room, dragging a cooler on wheels. "You weren't specific."

He could smell the meat, beef and pork, fresh and bloody. On the screen, Eliot was back up and pacing. Hardison slipped out of the room as Sophie and Sterling glared at one another. Sophie was the first to look away, handing Nate a bottle of Jack Daniel's. He took a deep drink before squatting next to the cooler. "Did you lace it?"

Sophie nodded. "Yeah, a good dose. My chemist friend said it should put down just about anything smaller than an elephant. Are you going to explain why?"

On the screen, Eliot was nosing through the bedding. He found the blood that Sterling had dropped and tossed it to the floor, pouncing after it. Nate nodded to the screen. "So we can get Eliot back to himself."

He left her staring at the screen and took the cooler and the bottle. The sooner they got Eliot back to his human form, the sooner they could figure out what their next step should be. He opened the door slowly.

Eliot looked up from where he lay on the floor, blood smeared over his face. "Okay, easy Eliot. I brought you some food." He pulled the cooler in and pulled the door shut. Eliot licked his lips and sat up. 

Nate eased the cooler open and pulled out a hunk of meat. "Here you go." He tossed it toward Eliot, watching as red eyes tracked it and claws grabbed a hold of it. Eliot leaned in, sniffing it cautiously before laying down and holding the meat between his hands. Nate slid down to sit against the wall, the cooler beside him so he could keep tossing out meat. Eliot ate voraciously, going through half the cooler before Nate could start to see the effect of the tranquilizers.

It showed in Eliot's eyes first, hazy as the red started to bleed away. He wobbled as he moved toward Nate, his body stretching out as he fell into unconsciousness. His head landed on Nate's knee. Nate's hand stroked through his hair absently, closing his own eyes. He hadn't slept since waking up here in this vault…and he couldn't even guess how long ago that had been now. 

Eliot's face was hot, even through the denim of his jeans. Nate's own hunger rumbled and he lifted the bottle of Jack in response. It wouldn't satisfy him, but maybe it would dull the need enough that when Hardison came back, Nate wouldn't kill him.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eliot wakes to his new situation, and he and Nate try to find a new balance between them.

Craving and desire fill him, call him, her voice tugging on his need, beckoning him out of the drug induced sleep and away from the quiet that surrounds him. She speaks to the animal, to the raw, growling beast that is a part of him now.

Eliot crawls slowly toward consciousness, away from the voice, from his desire to do exactly as she asks, as she demands. He's aware of his body first, aches that come from the change in him, from the transformation, muscles hard and stronger somehow than before…there's a power inside him that wants to be unleashed. 

He's aware of Nate next, the smell of him filling his nose, the feel of his body, loose and pliant under Eliot's head. Eliot turns his face and nuzzles into Nate's groin, feels him coming awake. He smells Nate's hunger, the alcohol, blood, raw meat…his own stomach grumbles and he feels Nate move in response…it's barely a twitch, but Eliot feels it in his stomach, in his skin. 

He lifts his head slowly and looks at Nate. Desire flushes through him that has nothing to do with the voice in his head, just lust that radiates through him, his cock hard and full, his hands on Nate's thighs. 

"Easy." Nate murmurs, reaching for Eliot, his hand touching Eliot's face. 

Eliot doesn't want easy. He wants Nate. He remembers how Nate smelled like Hardison before. Eliot turns his face, sniffing at Nate's hand. The smell is still there, though it's fading behind the smell of the vampire's own scent and the blood and the whiskey.

His tongue slides over the skin of Nate's wrist, tasting. "Want." Eliot growls, moving so that he's leaning over Nate now. Nate nods, his hand drawing Eliot closer, licking his lips and that just makes Eliot want to taste more. He rushes forward, crushing their lips together, tongue surging into Nate's mouth. His heart thunders and Eliot has to fight to keep from clawing at Nate as he tastes whiskey and Hardison's blood and the animal that Nate had bitten to save him. 

Jealousy rages in his veins, flushes his face and body with heat, pushing him toward the cat he knows is close to the surface now, and he isn't very careful as he pulls on Nate's clothes. Nate is docile under him, which only makes him more frantic to get to skin, sniffing at him as his shirt tears open. It isn't until Eliot's nails break skin that Nate reacts, roaring in pain. Eliot's nails are sharp, bloody now as Nate rears up under him and shoves him back, his face shifted, his eyes black.

Eliot hisses, sounding more cat-like as he tilts his head, feels the fury inside him, changing him. The smells are sharper now, as Nate throws off his ruined shirt and tries to calm down. "Eliot, I need you to calm down."

Eliot smiles, though he imagines it doesn't look pleasant. He lurches forward, knocking Nate to his back. "Mine. Want." Eliot pins him, rubbing his naked body against Nate, nipping at his nipples, then laving over them, making Nate arch up under him.

"Funny." Nate grips his shoulders and rolls them, pinning Eliot under him and grabbing his cock. "I thought you were mine." Nate nips him, teeth breaking skin in the usual place on his neck, though he doesn't drink, just draws blood. His hand moves dry and hard on Eliot's cock and Eliot growls in need. His hands reach for Nate's pants, but Nate smacks them away, unzipping himself. "Not with those hands." 

Nate lifts up to pull his pants down and Eliot takes the moment to change their positions again. "You smell like him." Eliot growls in Nate's ear once he's straddling over him. "Gonna make you smell like me." Eliot licks up his neck, breathing over wet skin

"You know he's watching." Nate says, bucking under him in an attempt to reverse their positions again.

"Let him watch." Eliot snarls, nails poised against Nate's skin, at his shoulders as he moves down, pushing Nate's legs apart to get between them. His nails rake down Nate's chest, catching on his hardened nipples as he leans in to get his mouth on the head of Nate's cock.

Nate stills for the moment, as Eliot licks over the tip. "Mine." Eliot growls when Nate tries to pull away.

"You don't know what you're capable of." Nate says, sitting up and reaching to pull Eliot into a kiss. "Don't want you…biting off more than…well, no, just don't want you biting anything off." Nate nips at his lip, drawing blood. Eliot hisses, but Nate has him off balance, back on his haunches as Nate stands, drawing Eliot up with him. "Need to go slow."

"Fuck slow." Eliot snarls, his hand around Nate's cock as he spins them and pushes Nate face first into the wall. His nails draw blood over Nate's ass before he gets a finger into and Nate once more stills to keep Eliot from hurting him more. "Want to fuck you." It's more than a want, it's a need that burns through him, to mark him, claim him…fuck him deep and raw and before he can calm the raging beat of his heart or the change wanting to come, Eliot is fucking into Nate, a low growling rumble coming from his chest as he filled Nate and shoved him into the wall. "Mine." 

Nate lets him have a few thrusts before he is pushing back, bracing himself against the wall. He growls now too, snarling and shoving himself back into Eliot's thrust. One hand comes off the wall, reaching back to grab a fistful of Eliot's hair and yank, making Eliot yell into the skin of his back. When he pulls the second time, Eliot bites into his shoulder and Nate falls into the wall, then rolls them so Eliot's back is against the wall.

Eliot's hands clamp around Nate's hips, pulling him back onto Eliot's cock with bruising strength, his claws digging into flesh. They're both panting, sweating, bleeding. Nate's hand lets go of Eliot's hair, covers Eliot's hand. Eliot presses his knee behind Nate's knee, riding him back down to the floor, down to all fours where Eliot can fuck him harder. "Fucking fuck." Nate curses, folding forward as Eliot sets a blistering pace. 

His cock spills onto the floor, the smell of come mixing with the other heavy scents already in the air. Eliot feels Nate clench around him and feels him shudder as his cock scrapes the concrete floor. He roars as he comes, falling off to the side to gasp and pull himself back from the pleasure and passion. 

Nate rolls onto his back and Eliot can't help himself, he has to touch, his hand, now mostly back to normal, gliding over his stomach, over the already healing marks. He follows with his tongue, then his cheek, until he's rubbing his head up Nate's neck and Nate's hand is petting over his hair. His breathing slows and he lays his head down on Nate's shoulder.

After a few quiet moments, Nate stirs. "You done marking me with your scent now, or should a lay still a few minutes more?"

Eliot sits up, grinning a little sheepishly as he realizes that's exactly what he'd been doing. "I'm done."

Nate sits up, wiping at the blood before looking at him pointedly. "How are you?"

Eliot pulls a hand through his hair, and now that the immediate need has passed, he's a little shaky, uncertain. Everything seems so close to the surface, like he might lose himself at any moment.

"Honestly? I don't know." He pushes himself to standing. "Like someone shot me full of adrenaline, but it ain't burning off. Like there's something wild in me I can't control." He swallows, hugs himself. "I can't tell where I end and it begins."

_"Come to me, Eliot._

Eliot closes his eyes and tries not to hear her.

"What?" Nate asks, rising himself and crossing to where he had left his pants.

"Nothing."

"Eliot, I can't help you deal with this if you lie to me."

"Fuck you." Eliot bites at him, then turns away. "I'm sorry."

Nate rubs a hand over his back. "No, I'm sorry. I should never have let you come with me."

Eliot snorts and shakes his head. "Right, because you've ever controlled what I do. Especially when I'm pissed at you."

Nate nods, pressing a kiss into the back of Eliot's neck. "I knew something wasn't right, but I didn't insist because you were pissed at me, because I almost lost you. And then…"

"You lost me anyway." Eliot says softly. He's not sure how he knows, but the bite on his neck is a clue. Nate bit, but didn't drink. 

"No, you're still here." 

Eliot pulls away, irritated now. With Nate, with himself. "Lotta fucking good it does us. I can't help you know. I can't take care of you when you need something because you don't need what I got."

Nate catches his arm and pulls him back. "Hey, this isn't over."

"No?" Eliot pulls free and goes to the bags on the floor where they had been sleeping, rummaging until he finds clothes that Hardison obviously had brought for him while he was sleeping in a drugged out stupor. Eliot shakes them toward Nate. "You have him now. Why keep even trying when I'm some freaking monster you can't get what you need from?"

"Stop." 

"No, Nate." Eliot's rage is bubbling again and he growls, the sound echoing around the room. "I can smell him, and I can almost taste how much you want him."

 _"Eliot, I'm waiting for you."_

Eliot turns away from Nate, eyes closing as he pushes the voice away. Fire burns in his blood. His nostrils flare and he swallows the desire to let the animal out.

_"Kill the vampire and come to me."_

"Eliot?"

"She wants me." Eliot says, clenching his fists. 

"Who?" Nate is at his side instantly.

Eliot shakes his head. "I can hear her in my head. She wants me to kill you, and come to her."

He rubs the heel of his hand into his eye. "Fuck."

"Can you tell where she is?"

Eliot shakes his head. "No, just…east…east of here."

"Okay, that's a start. She's probably at the house Parker trailed her goons to."

"Parker…shit. Ryna." Eliot starts to pull on his clothes. "She's going to be pissed."

"She's fine." Nate says, pulling out his own clean clothes from the bags. "Sophie relieved Parker through the night and will be taking her to school. I already arranged for Mrs. Harris to pick her up and keep her over night."

"She's going to know something's wrong."

"Eliot." Nate grabs his shoulders and turns him. "I need you to focus." He looks Eliot in the eyes. "You can't see her until you can control this."

Rage sweeps through him and he pushes Nate away. "You just proved my point." Nate says, which only angers him more. "How are you going to react to her misbehaving? You know she's going to act out. With everything that's been going on, she's going to be loud and possessive and angry."

Eliot turns away, fighting to push the rage back inside him. "Ryna will be fine. Let her stay with Mrs. Harris until we figure this out, okay?"

"What is there to figure out?" Eliot asks, looking for shoes now. "I got bit by some fucking monster and now I am one."

"Katja." Nate says as he moves to the door. "We need to find her, figure out why she wanted you so badly." He stops Eliot at the door. "And, we need to figure you out. Because you aren't just one of them. You're part me too."

Eliot frowns. "What?"

"That was her whole goal, Eliot. She was targeting vampires with human companions, human companions that they cared about so much they would nearly turn them to save them. You had nearly as much of my blood in you as your own when that cat bit you."

Eliot's head is starting to hurt. "What are you saying?"

"You aren't one of them, you're not fully one of them, and you're not fully vampire either, but you're some of both."

"Great. So I'm not just a monster, I'm a goddamn freak." He shoves the vault door open and it breaks off its hinges, crashing to the floor and toppling into the wall.

They both stare at it, then slowly Eliot backs up a step, shaking his head. "Tell me I didn't…"

Nate turns to him, hands soothing over Eliot's face. "Like I said, we need to figure you out. What you can and can't do, how strong you are, what your weaknesses are."

"Nate…" Eliot closes his eyes and for the first time since waking he feels more human than animal as fear and self loathing fill his stomach. "I don't want this."

Nate kisses over his face. "I know, god I know Eliot. We'll figure it out."

"What if I can't…you know, control it? What happens to Ryna?"

"We won't let it come to that." Nate assures him, drawing him through the vault door. "I promise."


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eliot and Nate both have a lot of adjustments to make, from how their relationship is going to change, to all the ways that Eliot is different now and when they both realize that Hardison is now an intrigal part of their lives, they might all suffer the consequences.

_Eliot_

He closes his eyes and shifts in the seat of the truck, turns his face away from Nate. He can feel her, tugging on him. He's hungry, not just a little hunger either. It gnaws at him. He wants blood and meat, hot and fresh.

His heartbeat echoes through him as they drive past people spilling out of a bar onto the street. Somehow he imagines that he can taste them, hear the blood rushing through their veins, feel the bursting of their hearts as he—

"Eliot?" Nate's voice grates over him, pulls him back.

Eliot blinks and exhales slowly. His hands are nearly gone to claws, the change just there, just under the surface, ready to come out. He focuses his breathing, concentrates on control. "I'm okay," he says after a few minutes, his voice deep.

"No, you're not." Nate reaches for him and Eliot pulls away, though there isn't much of anywhere to go in the little cab of the truck.

"Hungry." Eliot admits, licking his dry lips. 

Nate nods. "Okay. We'll get you something."

Eliot snorts. "It ain't like I'm talking about drive thru here, Nate." He can feel Nate looking at him. "I need something…fresh." He can feel the blush as he says it, embarrassed to need something like this.

_"Eliot, you need to kill. Come to me._

Nate steers them away from their destination, heading them out of town, up into the hills. When he stops the truck Eliot just stares at him.

"You need to eat. Go hunt something. I'll be here when you're done." Nate says.

Eliot shakes his head. "I don't know…"

Nate reaches over the seat for his hand. "I do. I know that this whole thing is fucked up and you're scared and you're not sure of anything. But the cat needs to hunt, hell, the vampire does too. Let those instincts guide you."

He still isn't certain, but he opens the door. The scents of the place are intoxicating, pulling at him. 

"You might want to leave your clothes here." Nate says, coming around to Eliot's side. "I don't have another change of clothes for you."

Eliot nods slowly. He can already smell an animal nearby and the cat inside him wants it. He pulls the shirt off and tosses it on the seat while he kicks off his shoes. Nate takes his jeans as he pulls them off and he supposes it should feel wrong somehow that he's standing there naked, but instead it feels liberating.

He's breathing heavy with need as he steps away. "Stop fighting it." Nate says. "Let it come."

He isn't sure he has a choice, but somehow he doesn't really want Nate to see it, the transformation. He fidgets, then heads for the trees. He can still smell Nate when he stops holding back. His body contorts and he howls in pain as he drops to all fours, watching his arms fill out and cover in coarse hair. Claws grow out of his fingers and the hunger growls out of his mouth as his jaw cracks and opens.

It's invigorating and terrifying and when it's over Eliot's thoughts are somehow separate from the part of his brain that is tracking the smell of a deer. He can still sense Nate, can still recognize that he needs to deal with his hunger and get back to him so that they can go after the bitch that did this to him, but at the same time he knows by the scent that this deer is young, moving toward him, knows to lie low in the brush, knows when to pounce to surprise it and bring it down.

The blood rushes over his claws and face as he falls on it, ripping it open to get at the heart, craving the heat of it, letting the blood run over his face as he eats. He roars into the wind, then pauses, sniffing the air.

Another cat hunts nearby…hunts him…he turns, licking at his face. 

_Eliot, I need you._

He cocks his head and listens to the other cat moving. He moves slowly toward her, the smell of her. She slinks through the trees toward him, her body long and lithe and covered in gold fur. She stops and waits, the voice in his head whispering to him, calling him closer.

Eliot stops across the clearing from her. He wants her, desperately craves her touch, her approval, and yet…somehow he knows that to take another step would be signing himself over to her. He can't see the trap, but he knows it's there.

She sits, licking her whiskers. Her form shifts and she's a woman with long brown hair streaked in gold kneeling in the brush. "I won't hurt you, Eliot," she says, holding her hand out to him. "I made you. I want you."

He tilts his head, his eyes scanning around her. Her voice resonates inside him, and he wants her too. He shakes his head, hair falling around his face. "You did this to me." Eliot says, his voice strange in his ears.

She seems surprised to hear him speak without shifting back to his human state. Her delight sings across the clearing at him. "This is better than I could have anticipated. Come with me, and let me teach you."

He sees the movement now, on either side of her, the black cat that bit him and another, stealing through the brush on their bellies to get close enough to spring on him. He can feel Nate getting nervous. He can sense the other cats too. If Eliot doesn't move soon, Nate will come in to try to help him, and probably end up dead.

"Leave the vampire to my kitties, Eliot. He doesn't concern you now." Katja says, her hand held out to him.

"You obviously don't know me very well, bitch." Eliot says, spitting the words and backing off a step. "You touch him, I'll tear you to pieces myself."

He springs for the nearest tree, claws digging in to haul himself up and jumping to the next. The others are following, and he can't lead them to Nate, can only hope Nate gives him enough time to get clear.

One of them is in the trees behind him. The other is following on the ground. Eliot grins, watching as the one on the ground gets close enough. The black one is nearly on top of him when he drops out of the tree, claws out.

He slashes at the cat's throat and back and rides it down, springing away just in time to avoid the black one following. He pounces after Eliot and they roll through the leaves and clinging brush. Eliot yells as claws dig into his side, grabbing at the big paw and yanking it away.

He flips them, digging his back claws into the cat's lower back and biting hard into its shoulder. They fall in a bloody mess and the cat tries to crawl away, getting only a few steps before collapsing. Eliot's panting as he shifts back to human form. The other cat is shifting too, a tall black man laying naked in the leaves, his back and shoulder bloody and ripped.

He is alive, if only barely. Probably won't stay that way long. Eliot sniffs the air around them, but Katja was gone. He hefts the man over his shoulder and heads back toward Nate.

"I was starting to worry—" Nate says, turning and stopping as he sees Eliot with the unconscious man. "What's this?"

"The bastard that bit me." Eliot says, dumping him onto the grass beside the truck. The man groans as Nate moves to squat beside him. "I ran into him and a few friends."

"Thus why I was worried." Nate responds distractedly, reaching out for the bleeding shoulder, but pulling back before touching it. "He's in bad shape." 

Eliot pulled his jeans on. "Won't ever walk again. I think I cut his spinal chord. Probably won't live for long. Figured we could get some information out of him."

Nate exhales. "I don't know if I can even get him awake enough to talk." He leans in, lifting the man's head. "Hey, hey….can you hear me?"

The man gurgles, spitting out blood. His eyes open, flicking from Nate to Eliot. "Told her it was a bad idea." He swallows, his head falling back. "Fucking vampires."

"Well, that was helpful." Nate says as he stands, wiping his hands on his pants and looking up as Eliot pulls on his shirt. 

"Don't look at me, I was trying not to get killed." Eliot says.

"Hardison called." Nate offers as Eliot shoves his feet into his shoes. "He's waiting for us."

Eliot frowns, but nods. Hardison. Who Nate was feeding from. 

"Hey." Nate is suddenly in his space, hands on his face. "Stop." His kiss is hard, shoving Eliot into the truck. "This isn't his fault."

Eliot wants to shout, to shove Nate off of him, but he wants to drag him closer and taste him too. "I'm trying." Eliot says through clenched teeth. "This isn't easy."

"I know. But we'll make it work." Nate insists, kissing him again.

It calms him some and Eliot nods when he feels his control in place. "I'm good."

"Are you?" Nate asks. "Can you handle seeing him? He's waiting at home."

"He's in our house?" Eliot asks, anger ratcheting up again.

"Sterling and Sophie are at the office." Nate says as he steps away. "I thought maybe you'd want a shower, some rest."

And Nate needs to feed, Eliot knows. It's maybe more obvious to him now that his senses are all on high alert. He hasn't fully recovered from his own ordeal and dealing with Eliot has taken a lot out of him. "I'm being selfish." Eliot climbs into the truck and resigns himself to the fact that Hardison is a part of this now, in ways none of them could have anticipated.

"No one can blame you." Nate replies as he gets behind the wheel. "This is fucked up." He rubs his hand over his face. "I never meant for you to be…but you were different, and Hardison…he's terrified, you know…"

Eliot looks at him with surprise. "What?"

Nate's mouth is a thin line, his face pale. Eliot can taste the hunger that lingers almost continually in him. "The first time…I…barely warned him, didn't ask…" He shakes his head. "He passed out before I'd even…" He grabs Eliot's hand then, squeezing it once. "I've only tasted him three times and I've never gone past drinking what I needed. You understand?"

Eliot nods tightly. "I get it."

"I'm _with you_ , Eliot. Hardison is…well, he's a friend and as soon as we're through this crisis I will never touch him again."

Eliot takes it for what it is, a passionate plea to keep him from killing Hardison, but he knows it's one Nate won't keep. He knows because he's been in Hardison's shoes. "You know we haven't ever made each other any promises, Nate…you don't owe me anything."

Nate lets go of his hand and grabs the back of his head, dragging him across the seat. "You can be a thick headed son-of-a-bitch, Eliot Spencer." His lips close over Eliot's and his tongue surges into his mouth. "I'm telling you I'm not leaving you."

It's maybe as close as either of them have come to declarations of love or intention and Eliot swallows, nodding slowly. "Okay. We'll work it out." Eliot offers, sitting back. "Lets go home."

 

Hardison is waiting for them when they get there, fidgeting at the kitchen table with his laptop. He gets up, his eyes darting between them. "I, uh…I got some supplies."

Eliot can taste the fear now, especially when Hardison looks at him. He's got to give the man props that he's even there given how scared he is. He decides to give him some time to settle down. "I'm going to shower." Eliot says, glancing at Nate.

"Yeah, okay. We'll be out here when you're ready."

He turns his back and walks away. Nate won't feed with him there. Eliot knows he won't. He heads into their bedroom, yanking clothes off and dropping them. The light in the bathroom is stark and hurts his eyes. Blood still covers him, dried and cracking off his skin. There are marks from the fight, wounds already mostly healed in his side. That was one advantage to his new nature he supposed. He'd always healed quickly, but this was unheard of.

He starts the water, turning it up hot and stepping in. He actually catches himself purring at the feeling as it slicks over his skin. He shakes his head and turns his face into the spray. All in all it's been less than forty-eight hours since his world got turned upside down.

They still don't really have a clue what he is exactly, or what he's capable of. They'd talked about it, him and Nate, in the basement of their office building where they spent the day, waiting for the sun to go down. He is strong, as evident by the way he'd just shoved the vault door off its hinges. His senses are acute, more so than they ever could be as a human.

There are parts of himself beyond his control now though, the need for the hunt, to feed, to feel the heat of blood pouring out of a still beating heart…and he wonders whether that's vampire or cat. It was clear with the deer that he wanted the blood as much as the meat.

Then there was Katja. There is no doubt in his mind that the cat inside him wanted her, wanted to go to her…and he wonders if he let her get close enough to him whether he could control that.

The water is starting to run cold when he finally turns it off, stepping out and reaching for the towel. The apartment is quiet. He wraps the towel around his waist and pads out to find Nate laying on the couch, an open bottle on the floor beside him. He hasn't fed, Eliot can tell. In fact, he hasn't so much as touched Hardison. He's feigning sleep, so for the moment, Eliot leaves him and goes to the kitchen. 

Hardison looks up, blinks, then goes back to his computer. Eliot sighs and goes to the fridge. There are empty blood cartons on the counter, so Nate had _something_ in him, but Eliot knows it isn't enough. He knows because it isn't enough for him either.

He pulls out a beer and opens it, downing half of it in one go before he realizes that he doesn't really know if he should. He licks his lips and sets it aside to wait and see how he reacts. Hardison is watching him, his eyes wide. 

Eliot knows he needs to put him at ease, even though what he wants is to make sure he understands that Nate belongs to Eliot. He swallows and licks his lips. "You okay?" He doesn't exactly look at Hardison as he says it.

"Me?" His voice doesn't exactly squeak, but it isn't his strongest either. He clears his throat. "Man…you…" He gestures at Eliot.

Eliot nods. "I'm…okay."

"Okay? Is that what you are?" Hardison asks. "I would be completely freaked out if I were you."

Eliot moves fast, faster than he means to, suddenly leaning into Hardison's space. "You aren't me. You can't ever be me." His heart races and he can smell the vague scent of Nate on his skin, the trace of where Nate fed last. His eyes rivet on the spot, high up on his neck, just under his ear. Without thinking about it, he licks over the spot and Hardison freezes.

His arousal takes Eliot by surprise, the taste of his skin changes, the fear backs off a little. Just a little though. His hands shake as he tries to figure out what to do with them. Eliot can tell by the taste that it's been a long while since Nate fed, probably not since Eliot was drugged and sleeping. He forces himself back. 

Hardison's eyes are wide as they meet his. "You…" he clears his throat again. "Do you need…" he gestures at his neck and Eliot smiles as gently as he can. 

"No, but Nate does. If that's okay." 

"Nate said—"

Eliot shushes him with his lips, kissing him, startling him. "Nate is being stupid. If you can, if…if it's okay with you, he really needs some…and he needs to see that I understand."

He tugs Hardison up out of the chair, but the skinny hacker digs his feet in. "Wait. Wait." 

Eliot suppresses the desire to just drag him to Nate and force the issue. "What?"

"I’m not saying no." Hardison says, holding up his hands. "I'm just…I need to understand what this is…because I saw what it was with you, how it started and where it went and I don't know if I'm ready for that."

Eliot nods, because he gets that. Eliot had no idea what he was getting into the night he seduced Nate into feeding from him, but Hardison did. Unfortunately it was too late for him. "If you don't want it, Hardison, you should leave now, get on the next plane out of the country and stay gone. You're already in his system, and maybe he's been kind about it, but the sex is a part of it. You can't tell me you don't already know that."

Hardison looks away, then back again. "And you?"

Eliot rubs his neck. "I can't give him what he needs. At least not with blood. Not when I need it myself."

Hardison shakes his head and lifts a hand as if to touch him before he drops it. "No, I was talking about the sex part."

Eliot blinks. "What?"

Hardison's heart rate nearly doubles and the fear is creeping back into his eyes, but it's on pace with something else. "I mean, that kinda puts me between you and him, doesn't it? And if I'm…"

Eliot gets it now, flushing with a sudden lust that he thinks must be from the cat. "I…I don't trust myself…I don't want to hurt you."

The disappointment rolls off Hardison in waves and Eliot grabs him without thinking, dragging him into a possessive kiss that runs straight to his cock, tenting the towel. His blood roars with need and he feels his body come alive with the change. 

He forces himself to release Hardison and step back, breathing hard as he forces the beast back inside him. "I…can't." Eliot says harshly through his teeth. "Not now." 

"Okay, I can see that." Hardison says, backing off himself now.

"Nate." Eliot says. "Nate needs you."

"I tried, man." Hardison says.

"Not hard enough." 

Eliot turns him and pushes him out into the living room, ripping open his shirt as they went. "Hey." 

Nate sits up, a question on his face, a question that Eliot answers by shoving Hardison at him. "Eliot?"

"Feed." Eliot says.

"What?" Nate looks up at Hardison who is straddling over his lap, then to Eliot. 

Eliot crowds in behind Hardison, reaching around him to open his pants and ease his cock out of his pants. He hisses into Hardison's skin, fighting the urge to change. "Feed." His voice is deep, rumbling in his chest and making Hardison shiver. "We all know you need it. We all want it. Do it." 

Nate shakes his head. "Kiss him." Eliot whispers in Hardison's ear. Hardison moves a little awkwardly, but kisses Nate and Nate makes a strange sound. Eliot's nails are nearly gone to claws, but it gives him an idea. He lifts his hand to Hardison's skin, just over his collarbone.

Hardison's head falls back against him as he draws blood and Nate's eyes lead his mouth to the wound. He licks over it, then sucks and Hardison is bucking up at him, groaning. The smell of come fills the air and Nate pulls back, blood smeared over his lips. Eliot shoves Hardison aside to taste those lips, licking at the blood, then chasing it into Nate's mouth. 

His towel is lost in the struggle that follows, and he tears at Nate's pants, both of them desperate. Nate pulls his hands away when nails slice into his stomach, shoving Eliot backwards.

He lands on the coffee table and it cracks, dropping him to the floor. Nate is on him instantly, his eyes black, his fangs bared. Eliot roars as they fall together, turning in an attempt to get some leverage. Nate gets his hand around Eliot's cock, using it to keep him in place. Nate's cock bites into him, fucking him hard with Eliot half turned over, his leg lifted up onto Nate's shoulder.

Nate turns his head and bites into the meat of his calf, hard and deep and the pain pushes Eliot closer to the animal. He roars again, but Nate has him pinned as he finishes, coming inside him.

Eliot starts when a mouth touches his cock and Nate is still inside of him. "Hardison…" Nate's voice is a warning, but Hardison doesn't heed it, just sucks more of Eliot into his mouth, taking Nate's hand away. 

"Nate." Eliot gasps as it gets harder not to change and Nate pulls out of him, dropping his leg and pushing him fully onto his back, pinning him in a different way as Hardison swallows him and Eliot's body trembles with the effort.

Then Nate is kissing him, his hands held in an iron grip to keep him from hurting Hardison. "Fuck!" Eliot can't get more than that out as a way of warning Hardison, and he's coming, Hardison's mouth milking him and riding him all the down until Eliot actually whimpers and Nate lets him go to reach behind him for Hardison.

Eliot pants under Nate who isn't getting up just yet. Hardison backs off though, falling back onto the couch. Nate shakes his head and Eliot nods to him. "I'm okay."

"You're fucking insane." Nate counters, climbing off of him and helping him up.

"You're just figuring that out now?" Hardison asks.

"You're not any better." Nate says, pointing at him.

"Don't blame him." Eliot reaches for his towel. "Although that blow job idea was the stupidest thing he's ever done."

"He's sitting right here." Hardison says. "And it tamed you right quick, didn't it?"

The growl came unbidden and Eliot thinks if it were possible, Hardison would be white as he jumped off the couch and circled around, keeping Nate and as much furniture as possible between him and Eliot. "I think I should check on the search I was doing."

"I'm gonna kill him." Eliot growls. 

Nate stops him from following Hardison, shoving him back toward the bedroom. "Later. Right now we need him to find Katja."


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eliot tries to come to terms with himself, but when Katja calls to him he has trouble not going to her.

_”You are magnificent,” she purrs as she circles him, petting over his half changed form. “Such control already, such power.” Her hand tangles in his hair and pulls his head back, her mouth covering his. “Beautiful.” She lets go and he craves her touch. “Come to me Eliot. We belong together. You are mine.”_

Eliot started upright, eyes scanning the room as if he expected her to be there, in the shadows. He could feel the sun not quite ready to set, hear Hardison’s heartbeat all slow and rhythmic in his sleep on the couch, smell Nate as he woke behind him.

“Everything okay?” Nate asked.

Eliot exhaled and willed the cat back inside him, watching as his claws reverted to hands. He nodded tightly. “Dreams.”

“Katja?” Nate asked, sitting up.

Eliot sat on the bed nodding. “It’s getting worse.” He frowned, remembering the way she touched him, the way he wanted her to touch him. “You know about this shit, right?”

Nate’s hand caressed over his knee, trying to offer comfort. “I know some.”

“Tell me.”

Nate shook his head. “Tell you what?”

“What you know. I mean…is this normal? This hearing her in my head?”

“Eliot, nothing about this is normal. I’ve never heard of therianthropes having telepathic abilities.”

“Vampires?”

Nate looked uncomfortable as he nodded. “Yes, some do. Mostly with their own kind. Sometimes when a vampire feeds from the same human for a long time they develop a rapport.”

Eliot looked away. “I need you to tell me something, honestly.”

“Of course.”

“How…how close was I?”

Nate rubbed his face and got up to pace. “I’m not sure what you mean?”

“You said you nearly turned me.”

Nate nodded. “Yeah, it was…honestly? I thought maybe I had. You stopped breathing. If Hardison hadn’t been here…”

Eliot stood, frowning even harder. “Are you saying he—“

“Gave you mouth to mouth…He pulled you back. I was a mess.” He stopped pacing. “If he hadn’t been here, you probably would have…I couldn’t have let you die.” He looked Eliot in the eye. “The truth of the matter is, every time I’ve given you blood, it’s changed you a little bit. If I’d kept doing it, you would have turned eventually.”

“So…when the cat got to me…I was nearly a vampire, is that what you’re telling me?” Eliot nodded, thinking that sort of made sense. “What if it isn’t because of either, but maybe it’s her? Maybe she’s…psychic or something?”

“It’s possible.” Nate agreed. “The question is, can you fight her?”

Eliot looked away. “Of course.”

“I’ve seen you when she’s talking to you Eliot. You want her.”

There was no tone of betrayal or hurt in his voice, but Eliot felt it anyway. “No. I don’t.”

“Come on, I’ve known you too long.”

Eliot turned back to him and shook his head. “I mean, in the moment, when she’s pulling on me, yeah, I want it. I want her. But it ain’t me. You get me? I don’t want her.” He hit his chest in emphasis. “The cat does.”

Nate reached out for him, a hand on his shoulder. “You and the cat are one, Eliot. You need to come to grips with that.”

Eliot’s stomach rumbled and he sighed. “What I need is meat. A lot of meat.”

Nate nodded. “We’ll get you something.”

In the next room, Eliot felt Hardison’s heart rate speed up. “Hardison’s awake. We should get moving.”

“Do you have anything resembling a plan?” Nate asked.

Eliot nodded. “We find the bitch and we kill her.”

 

Nate wasn’t entirely sure that Eliot would actually be able to follow through on that plan. He was concerned that they couldn’t give him more time to acclimate to the changes in his body, or even figure out what those changes were.

It didn’t help that Nate was still feeling the effects of his long starvation and nearly killing Eliot, and nearly losing him and knowing that he was forever changed. All of which had affect Nate a lot more than he was letting on. Eliot needed him to be calm, reasonable.

Not that this was reasonable. 

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Nate asked as he stopped the truck.

“No.” Eliot’s jaw was set and hard. “But I need to see her.”

“Okay. You want me to come in with you?”

“Yeah.” Eliot didn’t look at him. “In case…just…”

Nate nodded and got out of the truck, following Eliot to the door. Eliot smiled when Mrs. Harris answered. “Oh, Mr. Spencer. I’m so glad. Ryna—“

“Eliot!” Ryna flew at them, launching herself at Eliot and wrapping her arms around his neck. 

Eliot caught her and held her tight, his eyes closing. After a long moment, Eliot put her down. “I’ll get my things.”

He caught her before she ran and she pouted. “You’re not here to take me home, are you?” It was more a statement than a question. 

“Ah, Mrs. Harris, could you give us a minute with her?” Nate asked.

The older woman smiled and disappeared into the house. Eliot squatted down by Ryna. “I need you to stay here, just for another couple of nights, okay?”

“No,” she said petulantly, taking his big hand in hers. “I want to be with you and Nate.”

“I know you do, but we have some very bad people we need to deal with first.”

She petted over his hand, her fingers idly tracing the lines on his palm. “Sophie told me you were sick.”

Eliot nodded. “I was, but I’m better now.”

She looked up at him, her eyes locked on his. “You’re gonna owe me. Big.”

Eliot grinned. “You bet.”

“New computer big.” Ryna amended. 

“We should go.” Nate reminded him and he nodded. 

He pulled Ryna into a hug. Nate could hear her whispering in his ear, but didn’t strain to hear what she was saying. When Eliot pulled back and stood, Ryna turned to Nate, raising an eyebrow in an entirely Eliot manner. Nate smirked and bent to get his hug. She clung to him, her voice soft in his ear. “You make sure he comes home.”

“I will.” Nate promised as he let her go and kissed her forehead. He wasn’t surprised to find Eliot already in the truck, but was a little surprised to find him flushed and sweating.

“Drive.” Eliot growled, not looking at the house. “Food.”

Nate turned them toward the hills, and he didn’t even have the truck stopped when Eliot was out and stripped and running into the trees. He paced beside the truck, waiting. The last time he'd let Eliot hunt, he'd been attacked. 

He could sense him though, and he didn't wander far, just deep enough into the woods to find something to hunt and eat. His phone rang and Nate pulled it out of his pocket. "Yeah, Sophie."

"Are you planning on joining us anytime soon?"

"Yeah, about a half hour. We just stopped for something to eat."

"Sterling is…well, he's not taking this so well."

Nate frowned. "He was fine yesterday."

"Yes, well. He's pacing and talking to himself."

"Just, keep him occupied. We'll be there soon."

He hung up and looked around him at the sound of a large animal moving through the brush. Eliot appeared, fully cat, and prowled toward him, approaching without shifting back. Nate watched him come, and smirked a little when he jumped up, giant paws on either side of Nate, effectively blocking him against the truck. His face shifted some, the snout retreating as Eliot leaned in. Nate didn't react at first as Eliot kissed him, then he felt the heat and opened his mouth, taking the blood that filled Eliot's mouth into his own and swallowing.

Eliot's tongue followed, filling Nate's mouth. He groaned deep and guttural over Nate's tongue and when he finally pulled back, Eliot was nearly back to normal, just the extra hair around his face and hands and his eyes, still more red than blue, any sign of the cat. 

He rubbed against Nate, his cock hard, his bloody hands pulling at Nate's clothes. "Fuck. Now."

"Easy." Nate tried to slow him down, but his shirt was already torn and Eliot's hands were growing claws again. Eliot hissed and tossed Nate to the ground, pouncing after him. "Okay, okay, I get it." Nate worked his own zipper and got his pants mostly off before Eliot was on him, rubbing his face over Nate's chest before ripping his pants the rest of the way down.

At least then, once Nate was mostly naked and accessible, Eliot slowed down, though he was still possessive and grabbing and Nate knew he was going to hurt later for the lack of lube, but it seemed a small price in the face of Eliot's urgency. The animal's instincts were clearly driving, sating his needs as they presented, first for food, then for sex.

Nate could only hope that he wasn't going to need a long nap to recover when they were done. He yelled as Eliot pushed into him, pulled back to the moment and attempting to shift positions to make it easier, but Eliot snarled at him and held him down as he thrust into him. Nate at least got one leg up, leaning it on Eliot's shoulder to open himself up a little more. He reached for his own cock, hard just with the taste of the blood, let alone the manhandling and fucking. He tugged on it in time to Eliot's increasingly frantic thrusting.

Eliot roared as he came, shoving all the harder into Nate and leaving bloody marks on his hips when he finally let go and pulled back. Nate growled up at him, not quite to a finish himself and Eliot grinned down at him before dropping down and sucking Nate's cock into his mouth. Nate came quickly then and when he had caught his breath and sat up, Eliot was already starting to get dressed.

"You feel better?" Nate asked as he sat up, reaching for his pants.

"A little." Eliot's voice was still deep and he shook his head as he pulled it through his shirt. "Sorry. I just…blood, horny."

"No, I get that. Trust me." Nate stood and buttoned himself up, then tried to make his shirt something that still resembled a shirt. "That's all vampire. I know all too well. You'll get control of that eventually."

He brushed dirt off his pants. "It's a good thing I keep spare clothes at the office. Get in. Sophie called. Apparently Sterling is…" He shook his head and went to the driver's door.

"Sterling is what?" Eliot asked as he started the truck and pulled them back on the road.

"Sophie wasn't exactly clear. I figure we need to get there."

"So what are you waiting for?"

 

Sophie met them at the door of the offices, looking worried. "Sterling is in Parker's office. He's not come out in a while."

"Hardison?" Nate asked as he headed for his office.

"He's in the conference room." Eliot growled, stalking past Sophie.

"Okay, one step at a time. I need a drink." Nate stepped around Sophie and went to his office, pulling a clean shirt from the closet and dropping the remains of the old one in the trash. 

"Problem?" Sophie asked, leaning on the doorway.

Nate crossed to his desk as he buttoned up and he sat to pull the bottle of scotch out of his drawer. "Eliot hasn't figured out how to control himself yet. His claws get…dangerous." He took a drink straight from the bottle and looked up at her. "Now, what about Sterling?"

She shrugged and gestured toward Parker's office. Nate took another swallow, then stood and headed that way.

Sterling was pacing, but he stopped and looked at Nate. "You. This is all your fault."

Nate sighed, crossing his arms. "How so?"

Sterling pointed at him. "You. If you hadn't been…"

"A vampire?" Nate asked.

Sterling blustered for a minute. "You know, I was fine not knowing there were vampires, or whatever the hell Spencer is…but you had to drag me into this."

"Me? You're the one who has been hunting me, Sterling." Nate corrected. "And, if I hadn't dragged you into this, you'd probably already be dead. Or maybe Katja would have turned you too. I don't know." 

"Nate." 

He leaned out the door to see Hardison in the hall outside the conference room. "I think I've got something."

Nate nodded, then looked back at Sterling. "Now, we're going to deal with Katja. You can help or you can go back to your life. Up to you."

He left Sterling there to decide and joined his team in the conference room. Hardison brought the screens to life. "I've been researching the good doctor." Hardison said. 

“Wait.” Nate said, stopping him. “Where’s Eliot?”

Parker came running, panting. “He’s gone. I tried to stop him.”

“Gone where?” Sophie asked.

“To Katja.” Nate answered, shaking his head.

“On his own?”

“Forget the doctor Hardison, find me a way into that property.”

 

Eliot could feel her. He left the truck and followed the pull of her. Nate would follow him, he was sure. He shifted as he neared the place, the cat roaring and reveling in the freedom to run wild.

Grass tickled his belly as he slunk low and crawled toward the gates, ready to climb the walls to get in, but the gates opened.

_”I’ve been waiting for you.”_

Three big cats growled as he entered, but held their distance as he walked toward the house. The door was open and he knew it was stupid to just walk in, but the pull was stronger now and he had to see her.

There was very little in the house, no real furniture until he reached a bedroom upstairs. The plush carpet led him to a low bed draped in gold and white and in the center of it Katja sat like a queen, holding out a hand to him. “Welcome Eliot.”

He found himself at the edge of that bed before he realized it and he pulled back, exerting some control. 

She smiled softly. “I will not hurt you. I made you.”

“Like hell.” He wanted to rip her apart, but couldn’t seem to move.

“You are a part of my pride, Eliot. You can not harm me. I am your queen.”

Her hand was on his face, caressing him, drawing him closer. He tried to pull away, but instead found himself leaning in to her touch. “You will come to love me, and you will obey me…and you will give me immortality.” Her hand petted over him and he purred under the touch, until he felt the sharp bite of a needle and jerked away.

A half familiar face swirled over him as darkness clawed at him and pulled him down into it.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katja wants Eliot for the secrets of his blood, but she doesn't count on Nate coming after him, or the pull of a relationship that is deeper than bloodlust.

_”Eliot, I don’t know if you can hear me. We’re coming for you, just sit tight. Don’t do whatever it is she wants you to do. Remember Ryna. She needs you to come home.”_

“Ryna.” The name growled into the corners of the room as he came awake, sitting up in a cage barely big enough to contain him. “I’m getting really fucking tired of cages.”

“Sorry, necessary evil.”

Eliot turned, squinting in the harsh light at the man in the lab coat who was working nearby. He gave Eliot a tight smile and slipped off his stool. “My specimens tend toward violence. This seems safer.”

“I’m no specimen, but I’ll show you some violence.” Eliot growled, squatting now and holding the cage.

“No…no. You are **the** specimen. I was nearly convinced this wouldn’t work. But look at you. None of the others even came close.”

“Others?”

“We tried everything, mixing the breeds all kinds of ways. Then I hit on the idea that if the specimen was only on the verge of turning, not fully vampire, not fully human, and the cat took it’s turn, maybe…just maybe we might find the answer.” He beamed at Eliot. “And there you are.”

“What have I told you about talking to the pets, Harold?”

Eliot froze, the sound of her voice affecting something inside him with something like arousal.

“Sorry, Ms. Katja. I’m very excited.”

“I’m sure you are, but you needn’t bother Eliot with the tricky little details.” She came to the cage and when her hand caressed his face, Eliot closed his eyes, the purr coming from deep within without warning. “How is your work coming, Harold?”

“Very good. Very promising. His blood is…remarkable. I’m still running the tests, of course, but I might finally have found a course of treatment.”

Katja moved from Eliot to the doctor in a flash, growling as she pinned him to the counter first. “I told you, you focus on my needs first. Your daughter comes after I get what I want.”

“Yes, yes, I know. I just mean that in looking for what you want, I have seen what I need to do for her.”

She licked up the side of his face. “Good boy. I wouldn’t want to have to feed you to Carl.”

“No, no ma’am. I should get back to work.”

“You do that.” She came back to Eliot, squatting down and reaching in to grab his hair and pull him to the bars. Her kiss was possessive and he could do nothing to resist, despite a strong desire to reach through the bars with his claws and rip her stomach open.

When she released him, he wiped his mouth. “Nate is going to rip you to pieces, you know that?”

She smiled a feral smile. “No, my dear Eliot…by the time your vampire realizes what I’ve done and comes to find you, you will be mine and when he tries, you will eviscerate him and bring his dead body to me to feast on.”

She stood and turned to Harold again. “Make sure he is sedated and brought to my bedroom before moonrise.”

Eliot didn’t like the sound of that. “What’s at moonrise?”

Harold looked at him with wide eyes. “Full moon. The queen needs to mate.”

And he **really** didn’t like the sound of **that**. “And if I refuse?”

“Oh, you won’t. Trust me. No one does.”

 

 

“Hardison?” His voice had a hard edge on it and Hardison looked up from his computer.

“I told you, nothing.” His eyes were wide.

Parker jumped off the table and pointed over Hardison’s shoulder at the screen. “Here. I could get in here.”

“No.” Nate growled. “No one is going in there but me.”

“Nate, what do you want from me? There’s nothing. No deliveries, no mail, it gets delivered outside the gate, which is guarded by two big dudes who turn into fucking lions.” Hardison stood and crossed his arms. “No back roads, no networks connected to the outside. Nothing. I can’t get in.”

“Then I guess I just have to go in the front door.” Nate stormed away.

“Are you insane?” Sophie asked, cutting him off halfway to his office.

“Out of my way.” Nate shoved her aside and went to his office, pulling the bottle from the door and not bothering with a glass. He swallowed twice before lowering it, welcoming the harsh burn. His need for blood was growing with his fear for Eliot, reminding him he hadn’t fully recovered from his starvation.

He could smell Sophie, too close. “Back off,” he growled.

“I got this.” He heard Hardison coming into the room, but Nate turned away, drank from the bottle again. “Sophie, just give me a minute with him.”

Nate heard the door close. “Hardison, not now.”

“Yes now.” His voice wavered a little, but sounded determined. “You need what I have.”

Nate turned then. Hardison had two Styrofoam containers of blood in his hands, held out to Nate. “You drink these, and we’ll talk about the rest.”

Nate took one and nodded. “Fair enough.” He had to give the boy credit. He hadn’t asked to be pulled into this, and it was easy to see how much it terrified him. Yet, here he was, offering himself. Nate drained the first container and took the second. “You know this is…not going to be enough.”

“Like I said, finish it and we’ll talk.” 

Nate raised an eyebrow, then drank the second one. It blunted the edges of his hunger, but he knew that if Hardison came any closer, that wouldn't necessarily remain true. He put the empty container on the desk and leaned against it, arms crossed watching as Hardison cracked his neck and loosened himself up. "Right now, Eliot is alone with a dangerous woman who can infiltrate his thoughts, mess with his head…someone who can control him because she made him." Nate said as calmly as he could manage.

Hardison held up a hand to stop him. "I've been thinking about that." He paced a little. "She didn't exactly make him. She had one of her boys make him…which makes her his grandma, not his mama. Her hold on him is as the queen of her pride."

Nate raised an eyebrow. "It's what I do." Hardison replied. "I research. He's more yours than hers though, when it comes right down to it. Your blood, right? You just need to get through to him." He stopped pacing and looked at Nate. "Thing is, if I understand what I've read so far, we're up against a time crunch."

Nate gestured for him to continue. "Go on, you're on a roll."

"Tonight is a full moon, the queen of the pride takes a mate. Once she's mated, they're bound…at least until she kills him. I figure the one that bit Eliot was her mate, one she trusted to bring Eliot to her. He killed him, so she'll be needing to replace him."

"And you think she'll chose Eliot?"

"Wouldn't you?" Hardison said. "Forget I said that."

Nate smiled, starting to understand Hardison, and the way he baited Eliot all the time a little better. "So all this time, the bickering was your way of flirting?"

"What? No. No." Hardison shook his head. "I-no. Just no."

Nate pushed off the desk and crossed to Hardison, catching his slender hips and turning him until Nate could push the younger man into the door. He kissed Hardison then, possessive and claiming and after only a slight hesitation, Hardison relaxed into Nate. 

He kissed down Hardison's jaw to his neck and Hardison whimpered a little when Nate's hand cupped his cock. "Now, I need to feed." Nate whispered in his ear while his hand eased Hardison's zipper down and pulled his cock out. "I need to be strong when I go in there to get him." 

Hardison nodded, his eyes closing as Nate stroked him. "More than that…I need him to smell you on me. I need to cut through whatever she's holding him with, need him to feel me, want me."

"Jealousy?" Hardison asked, swallowing. "That's your plan?"

Nate nodded, unbuttoning his shirt now. "Yes, that's my plan. So you and I are going to get comfy on the couch…and when I bite and feed, you're going to come on me and then you and the others are staying here, while I go get Eliot."

 

Eliot was vaguely aware that hands were stripping him and that he should be trying to escape, but the fog of whatever drug the doctor had given him was dampening his ability to actually do anything. 

There was warm water, hands cleaning him, drying him and then he was taken to a bed draped in gold and bathed in moonlight from the open French doors.

He could smell _her_ all over the bed as he was guided back to lay in its center, the cat within him reacting, craving. He rubbed his face in the pillows, reveling in her scent, his body beginning to transform as his handlers left him alone.

Then there was…something. He wasn’t sure if it was a sound or a voice or something else, but it stopped him. He sat up, looking around him. “Nate?”

His voice sounded harsh in the stillness of the room and seemed to stir the air, lifting the curtains around him. Nate was near. Eliot inhaled the mixed scents and shook his head, trying to clear it. He crawled to the edge of the bed and put his feet on the carpet. 

The cat wanted out, wanted blood…no, that was the vampire. Eliot held his head and stood, stumbling out on the balcony. The moon felt like ice on his skin, creeping over him, freezing him to the moment. The craving was intensifying, blood, hot and sticky, life beating out slowly into his hands, his mouth. His hands gripped the railing, hair covering them as the change bubbled up inside him.

“Can you feel it, my love?” Katja asked from behind him. “Your first full moon…it can be overwhelming.”

Eliot turned, the growl starting low in his stomach. She was naked but for a flimsy gold robe, in her human form. She looked vulnerable, but he knew she wasn’t.

“The sedatives help some, just let the change come, Eliot.”

He opened his mouth to speak, his tongue catching on fangs he didn’t remember being there before. The taste of copper flooded his mouth and he swallowed his own blood. It only brought the need roaring up in him.

“Come, feed from me.” She held out her hands and Eliot found himself moving toward her before he could stop himself. He sniffed at her hands, then nuzzled into one, licking at her palm. “That’s it. Come to me, Eliot.”

He surged forward, his mouth closing over hers, teeth nipping at her lips, the taste of her flooding his mouth.

“Eliot.” The voice stopped him. It wasn’t Katja. Nate. 

Eliot lifted his head and turned. Nate stood on the balcony. 

“He belongs to me, Vampire. Leave now before my pride tears you apart.”

Nate smiled. “Your pride. You mean the cats I put down on my way in here?” He took a step closer. “They should be up to it in about eight hours.”

Eliot looked at Nate, his nostrils flaring. Nate met his eyes and nodded. “You smell him?” Eliot turned from Katja completely, her scent forgotten under Nate and Hardison and sex. He took a step toward Nate, his hands nearly claws. He growled low and deep.

“Hardison.” His teeth clenched and he sniffed the air.

“Yes, Eliot. I was with Hardison.” Nate said, though his eyes flashed at Katja. Eliot could feel her behind him, reaching for him.

“You won’t win this.” Katja growled.

Nate smiled. “Eliot.” 

He was stuck between them. He looked at Katja, then Nate. His body stopped transforming and slowly reverted to human. He breathed in deeply. “I’m not a fucking toy for you to fight over.”

The sedative was still working in him, but he was a little more in control. The rage fueled by jealousy burned and he wanted to throw Nate to the floor and rub Hardison’s scent off of him. Then Katja’s voice filled his head and he wanted to grab her and sink into her, taste her and make her his.

_”Kill the vampire, Eliot.”_

Eliot shook his head. 

“She wants to be your queen, Eliot. She wants to rule you.” Nate said quietly.

“And what do you want, Vampire?” Katja spit.

Nate held Eliot’s eyes. Eliot focused on Nate, on the smell of him, on the memory of his touch. Nate wanted him. _”I love you.”_ Nate’s voice was soft inside him, but it reverberated through him, the words and the emotion attached to them. Eliot took a step toward him.

Katja’s growl rumbled. “You belong to me!”

Eliot turned as she transformed, catching her before she could reach Nate and together they fell to the floor. The change roared through him, his body bending and his claws dug into her. She bit at him and they rolled.

“Hardison?” Nate said, stepping clear.

Eliot could almost hear Hardsion’s voice over Nate’s comm. He wanted Eliot to get away from Katja so he could get a clean shot. Eliot roared and tore at her, getting a mouthful of her shoulder. He bit deep, her claws digging at him. He rolled them again, crushing her into the wall. He loosened his jaw then and turned his head, getting his mouth on her neck.

When he bit, she fell limp. Eliot drank the blood filling his mouth, even as he shifted, pulling her with him. He stood, lifting her bleeding body and already shifting back to human. At the balcony, he held her on the rail.

“Everyone down?” Eliot asked over his shoulder.

“Yeah, tranquilized.” Nate responded.

Eliot nodded and dropped Katja’s lifeless body to the pavement below. He looked up to where he assumed Hardison and his high powered tranq gun were hiding and pointed, then gestured into the room.

“What?” he could hear Hardison squeak. 

Eliot stalked to Nate. “It’s gonna get bloody.”

Nate smirked and looked Eliot over. “Already has.”

Eliot yanked Nate closer and kissed him, his body flushing with need. He plucked Nate’s earpiece out of his ear. “Hardison, get the fuck in here.”

He tossed the earpiece and focused on tearing Nate’s clothing from him while pushing him back toward the bad. 

“Easy.” Nate murmured, putting his hands on Eliot’s shoulders to get him to slow down a little.

“Wanna fuck.” Eliot growled, his hand getting inside Nate’s pants and around his cock, making him moan.

“Yeah, I see that. Is here…oh…” Eliot pulled on his cock, then pushed him backward so he could drag his pants off.

“Gotta bed.” Eliot threw Nate’s pants and immediately dropped down to take Nate’s cock in his mouth. “You smell like him.” Eliot licked at the taste of Hardison on Nate’s skin. “Where the fuck is he?” 

The door opened as if on cue and Eliot looked up. Hardison looked terrified. “Naked.” Eliot snarled, climbing off the bed again. Hardison didn't move, not even to blink.

"Eliot, easy." Nate murmured.

He couldn't go easy, not with the fire bursting to get out of him, not with the taste of her blood on his tongue and the craving for more ripping at his control. He needed to sate the beast. He had Hardison half way out of his shirt when he felt Nate behind him, hands easing up Eliot's back. _He's scared._

Eliot blinked and looked at Hardison and realizing Nate was right. "Not gonna hurt you." Eliot growled, trying to calm the raging need enough to calm the kid.

"Right." Hardison swallowed, looking at the nails on Eliot's hands that were more claws again than nails.

Nate kissed across his shoulders. "Deep breath, Eliot." His tongue laved over the place where he first bit Eliot. Nate bit through the skin and Eliot hissed. _Focus._

Eliot breathed over Hardison's lips, then licked them open. When his mouth closed over Hardison's, the younger man trembled and whined in the back of his throat. Eliot took a step closer, pressing him into the door, their bodies tight together. Nate followed, pressing Eliot between them. "Fuck." Eliot lifted both hands, focusing on making sure they stayed hands, to hold Hardison's face as they kissed.

It was hard to move slow, to be gentle, especially with Nate's naked cock pressing into the crack of his ass from behind. He could feel Nate's hands working Hardison's pants open, but Eliot kept his focus on their lips, on making Hardison less afraid.

Nate's hand covered his and his mouth moved over Eliot's neck. "Bed."

He broke the kiss, blinking up at Hardison. He was visibly calmer and he moved when Eliot did, letting Eliot guide him back to the mattress and down. Eliot let him move up on his own, until he was comfortable, then he lifted a knee and climbed up, lifting Hardison's foot and licking over the ankle, then up to his knee, opening his legs and making room between them. 

Nate moved behind him, touching Hardison's other leg. "Gentle." Nate murmured in Eliot's ear as he cupped Hardison's balls and started moving toward his ass.

"Yeah, what he said." Hardison said, throwing a pillow over his cock. 

Eliot swallowed the growl and grabbed the pillow. Hardison lifted his hips to let Eliot shove the pillow under him, tilting him just right. Eliot exhaled and let Nate reach from behind to guide his hand down toward Hardison's ass. They didn't have lube, which only made this harder. Eliot spit onto his fingers and eased them in.

Hardison tightened up at first, then seemed to take himself in hand, literally as well as figuratively. As his long fingers curled around his cock, his ass released and Eliot's fingers slid in easily. 

"Too long." Eliot growled. 

Nate spit into his own hand and reached around Eliot to coat his dick, then tug him forward. Eliot lifted Hardison's right leg up and out to open him up and growled as he penetrated him. Nate didn't even wait for him to be fully inside Hardison before he was pushing into Eliot.

"Fuck." Eliot panted through his nose, fighting the need to dig his nails into Hardison's sides to hold him in place. "Nate." His voice was laced with need and warning and Nate seemed to understand, biting down hard on Eliot's shoulder.

Eliot flexed his hips and pushed in harder, making Hardison groan. The room was sticky and hot, all the more so for the blood that coated his skin still and it wasn't helping. He needed more.

He grabbed Nate's arm, licking over the wrist before he bit. Nate yelled and thrust forward, shoving Eliot deeper into Hardison, who also yelled. Eliot drank until he needed to breathe more, then pulled back and set a blistering pace fucking down into Hardison and back onto Nate. 

His head was buzzing with blood and need and he was aware on some level that Hardison was rambling and begging and Nate was thrusting more and more erratically as he neared his orgasm. Nate's hand was still dripping blood as he grabbed Hardison's leg.

Eliot grabbed Hardison's arm and almost in unison he and Nate bit and drank, sending Hardison hurtling over the wall, his body contracting as he spilled come onto his stomach and then falling loose as he passed out. Eliot's hands were gone to claws again and he reached behind him for Nate, digging nails into the meat of his ass as he thrust into Hardison and came, roaring and collapsing forward as he finished, barely aware that Nate had come too.

He drifted as they lay there amid the blood and the come, spent. Exhausted. Nate was stirring. Even Hardison was starting to come around. Eliot couldn't move. Could not drag himself up.

Nate's hand was warm on his back. "Sleep. We'll clean up. I'll come get you when it's time to go home."

 

All in all, it had been a little over a week since he was nearly made into a vampire, then was made into a cat. So much had changed. 

Everything was still a little raw. Nate and Sterling dealt with the cats and Katja's body. Dr. Highmore had disappeared.

Now, Eliot was waiting for Nate to get home with Ryna because Nate said it was time to get back to normal.

He still wasn't sure that bringing her home into this nightmare was the right thing to do, but he had the beast mostly under control, as long as he fed well, and ran a lot.

The door opened and Ryna came in with the cat in her arms. He'd forgotten about the cat. "Nate says I have to be careful. Are you hurt?"

Eliot looked up at Nate, then back at his daughter. "I was. I'm better, but careful is a good idea." Nate set her bag down and closed the door.

"Where?"

Eliot's hand instinctively went to the shoulder where he'd been bit.

She nodded solemnly and crossed to where he stood. He squatted to her level, eyeing the cat who was sniffing at him. It wasn't afraid exactly, but it seemed to know something was different. Ryna covered the shoulder with her small hand. "Did you get him? The bad guy that hurt you?"

Eliot nodded. "Yes, we got him."

"Good. Merlin!" Suddenly the kitten was clawing at Eliot, meowing and licking at him and trying to climb onto him.

Nate snickered and Eliot grabbed the kitty, pulling him away from his shirt and handing him back to Ryna. "Control your cat."

Nate laughed harder. "It ain't funny." Eliot growled at him.

Nate held up both hands. "No, not at all."

"Go put your stuff away. Dinner's almost ready." Eliot said to Ryna, glaring at Nate. 

"Don't forget, you owe me a computer!" Ryna called as she headed down to her room.

"Merlin thinks you're his mommy." Nate snorted when she was out of earshot.

Eliot punched him. He was still laughing when he hit the floor. "Keep it up. You'll sleep on the couch."

Normal. Eliot was pretty sure they left normal behind the day he figured out that Nate was a vampire. Now he had no definition for what they were. A vampire, a were-cat, an almost nine year old girl…and Hardison. Like it or not, he couldn't leave Hardison out of the…family.

_"Not what you expected when you considered settling down?"_

"Since when do you get to talk in my head?" Eliot asked, not turning to Nate.

"Since I figured out how?"

"It's annoying." Eliot stirred his sauce, but leaned back into Nate when his arms slipped around his waist. 

"I meant it, you know." Nate said when the silence had stretched out.

Eliot didn't have to ask. He could feel it. The moment Nate's voice in his head said the words. "I know." He turned in the circle of Nate's arms and leaned his head into Nate's shoulder. "Never expected to settle down, have kids…never thought…." He swallowed and looked up at Nate. "Never expected this."

"And here we are."

"The four of us." Eliot breathed in deep and let it out. "We're going to need a bigger place."

Nate chuckled. "Hell, we're going to need a new bed too. Have you seen the damage?"

Eliot blushed. "Yeah, that too. And nail trimmers." He kissed Nate lightly. "But I ain't nobody's mommy, and you say it again or tell Hardison, and I will lock you back in that vault."

"You have my word." Nate promised, kissing him.

"Good. Set the table."

He could see, almost _feel_ the struggle on Nate's face. He turned away and went to get the plates. Eliot chuckled, finally letting himself relax. So it wasn't normal. 

Normal was boring anyway.


End file.
